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After the spike in public interest in cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and metaver, sports clubs are also looking to get into action. Indeed, there is a clear convergence between these two worlds. As a marketing strategy, most of them seem to find it an opportunity to attract new fans. In this context, the famous Spanish football team, commonly known as FC Barcelona, has announced the sale of a percentage of Barça Studios to the company Socios.com for the modest sum of 100 million euros. The purpose of this sale is to “accelerate the club's audiovisual, blockchain, NFT and web3 strategy”. However, there appears to be another reason for the sale.
The information is shared in a official announcement published on the website of the football club FC Barcelona. In total, the Socios.com platform, a subsidiary of the company Chiliz (CHZ), acquires 24,5% of the capital of Barça Studios. The latter is none other than the branch of the club in charge of developing everything related to the Web3. In particular, it is the club's digital content and distribution center.
In its press release, it is explained that the sale was made in accordance with the general meeting of 23 October 2021. Which means it had already been planned for a while. Joan Laporta, the almost continuous president of Barcelona since 2003, welcomed the event. He said:
“We have reached an agreement for the sale of 25% of Barça Studios for 100 million euros. We have the authorization of the meeting […] to sell 49% of the shares and for the moment we have sold 25% to Socios.com."
Joan Laporta, lawyer and sports president of Barcelona.
Barcelona are looking for new opportunities
First, let's clarify that Socios.com is the subsidiary of Chiliz (CHZ), which refers to a 2018 project that is supposed to help sports entities use blockchain-based tools. This is to attract and retain new supporters. As for the Socios.com platform, it helps sports organizations develop engagement tokens for fans.
By investing $ 100 million in FC Barcelona, the company claims it is capable of "Reshape the division's metaverse and Web3 strategies to include more revenue streams." In addition, the money will be used to launch new products and create long-term resources.
Socios.com explains that FC Barcelona will now have access to the Chilliz Chain blockchain. This will allow you to "Developers can issue NFTs and fan tokens and create DeFi products and play2earn games.". "
Socios.com CEO writes:
"Barca Studios can now leverage our technology, experience and global scale to help implement the club's Web3 content strategy and deliver new long-term revenue streams that will benefit the club for seasons to come." .
Alexandre Dreyfus Socios.com CEO
The Metaverse in the sights of both sides
But most of all, it seems that the investor's attention is focused on on the metaverse. An interest widely shared by the vision that the club has of this field and its probable evolution in the (very) near future.
It is true that the Spanish football club has invested heavily in this technology since the beginning of last year. And it wants to continue in this direction, because it offers great growth prospects. In particular, it is necessary to develop products in this sector, including NFTs at the same time.
Barcelona have hit rock bottom financially
As mentioned, the development of web3 doesn't seem to be the only reason for this sale. Indeed, Barcelona have been in great financial trouble since last year. In 2021, its debt exceeded one billion dollars. It is now well above this figure. However, this doesn't stop the club from spending more and more money to continue recruiting and staying in the game.
However, these difficulties are starting to weigh on Barcelona. For example, they were the reason for the non-renewal of the contract of the Argentine player Lionel Messi in 2021 and the sale of the television rights of La Liga (10%) to an American fund.
Therefore, the acquisition by Socios.com shows that FC Barcelona are putting in place all possible solutions. This is to stay in the green and avoid the worst. This underlying reason is confirmed by the club president. The latter claims to be also a " question of survival".
“We want to generate new growth opportunities. Our goal is to win titles and make our fans happy, but we must also take advantage of the opportunities offered by the sports industry. It's a question of survival ”.
Joan Laporta, lawyer and sports president of Barcelona.
