Soccer Football – Champions League – Benfica Working towards – Estadio da Luz, Lisbon, Portugal – April 12, 2022 Benfica’s Adel Taarabt with teammates at some level of coaching REUTERS/Pedro Nunes
Register now for FREE limitless web admission to to Reuters.comLISBON, June 7 (Reuters) – Portugal’s largest soccer membership, Benfica, will turn into the country’s first to join the crypto craze, partnering with blockchain-powered fan engagement firm Socios.com to delivery a fan token, the membership announced on Tuesday.
“We had been paying very shut attention to Digital Resources,” SL Benfica CEO Domingos Soares de Oliveira acknowledged in an announcement issued by Socios.com.
“It be a market which has been influential in our industry of leisurely. Benfica is consistently centered on attempting to acquire and handing over a obvious skills to our fanbase. We are happy to be partnering with Socios”.
Register now for FREE limitless web admission to to Reuters.comFan tokens are a originate of cryptocurrency that allow holders to vote on largely minor choices associated to their clubs.
They are increasingly seen by clubs as a source of sleek income. Socios.com, which supplies such tokens for Manchester City, Barcelona, Paris St Germain and totally different top clubs, says they generated with regards to $200 million for its accomplice clubs in 2021.
Delight in bitcoin and totally different digital currencies, fan tokens will most seemingly be traded on exchanges. Moreover they fraction with totally different cryptocurrencies an inclination for wild mark swings.
Some regulators have issued warnings to investors about digital assets.
Mild, several high-profile industry and leisure figures have backed crypto assets, with Tesla boss Elon Musk, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and rapper Jay-Z amongst those to have proven toughen for bitcoin.
Soccer vital particular person Lionel Messi signed an settlement price more than $20 million in March to promote Socios.com after the two-one year contract he signed with PSG in August 2021 included some of the French membership’s cryptocurrency fan tokens in a “welcome package”.
The Argentinian modified into most effective basically the most up-to-date world sports personality to enter the crypto world, following NFL quarterback Tom Brady and NBA vital particular person LeBron James. Messi’s deal modified into fraction of a rising wave of tie-u.s.between crypto firms and soccer.
Benfica offered their worst financial results of the previous 11 years for the 2020-21 season, with losses of 17.4 million euros due to the affect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
No longer even the return of followers to the stadiums has balanced the numbers. In March, the membership announced losses of 31.7 million euros in the first half of the 2021-22 season.
In July 2021, Benfica President Luis Filipe Vieira modified into detained as fraction of an investigation into alleged tax fraud and money laundering. Benfica SAD shares dropped after the news.
Register now for FREE limitless web admission to to Reuters.comReporting by Fernando Kallas; Modifying by Bradley Perrett
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