Football explores the
power of blockchain
Leading football
clubs are starting to tap the potential of blockchain technology as an
innovative way to deal with longstanding issues such as ticket scalping, fan
engagement and the payment of players’ salaries.
A blockchain is a database that is
shared across a network of hundreds of computers. Once a record has been added
to the chain it is difficult to tamper with. And to ensure all copies of the
database are the same, the network makes constant checks.
Blockchains have been used most
prominently as the tool behind cryptocurrency Bitcoin, but many other possible
uses from medical records to banking — and now sports — are emerging.
“Blockchain has the power to be
the underlying infrastructure upon which sport functions,” says Michael
Broughton of Sports Investment Partners. “Much as mobile phones and apps are
today a broader expression of the underlying internet so the sport can build
upon blockchain.”
After French football club Paris
Saint-Germain announced that they are launching their own cryptocurrency in
partnership with a blockchain company, Italian giants Juventus announced they
would do the same. Fans of the two clubs will be able to buy clubbranded tokens
that come with voting rights as well as access to exclusive content and
rewards.
Limitless
potential
The technology could also have
significant implications for ticket sales. European football governing body
UEFA used blockchain technology to sell all the tickets for the Super Cup final
in Tallinn between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid over mobile phones,
preventing the duplication of tickets.
In a sign of the growing interest
of the football world in the blockchain, Lionel Messi became a brand ambassador
for Israeli start-up Sirin Labs, which has developed an ultra-secure mobile
phone that uses the technology.
Former Liverpool and England
striker Michael Owen earlier this year invested in Hong Kongbased Global Crypto
Offering Exchange (GCOX), a platform that allows celebrities to create and list
their own ‘tokens’. “I believe blockchain technology holds the future. It has
limitless potential that we have yet to fully explore,” Owen says.
Bring
transparency
The technology is even starting —
albeit on a small scale — to be used to pay players, which some believe, could
help stamp out corruption in football.
Gibraltar United announced that it
would become the world’s first football club to pay its players in
cryptocurrency while tiny Turkish club Harunustaspor made headlines at the
start of the year by announcing it had carried out the world’s first football
transfer of a player in bitcoins.
“It could bring transparency to
the world of football,” says Pablo Dana of Heritage Sports Holding which owns
Gibraltar United and in August bought 25 per cent of Italian third division
side Rimini using a digital currency.
Having a player’s identity and
registration on the blockchain could provide greater transparency to the
transfer and ownership systems. The technology could also be used together with
big data analytics, to identify future football stars, according to Olivier
Jarosz, head of club affairs at the Switzerland-based European Club Association.
— AFP
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