How PSG made €30m in one weekend after signing Messi
FT Desk
- 29 Aug 2021 14:17 BST
- 3 min read
PSG astonishingly made €30 million in the weekend after signing Lionel Messi from the French club’s official cryptocurrency fan tokens.
This is according to former Barcelona presidential candidate Victor Font, who says this sum of money means that the first year of Messi’s contract in Paris is almost virtually paid for.
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Messi signed for PSG on a Bosman transfer earlier this month in a shock deal after Barcelona were unable to register his new contract with La Liga for financial and legal reasons.
What is Socios.com?
Messi’s new club PSG have a partnership with Socios.com, which is a blockchain-enabled cryptocurrency community that sells “fan tokens” offering supporters the opportunity to influence decisions at their favourite team.
These are not major decisions like the signing of players, but mainly trivial ones such as voting on what song the team plays after scoring a goal or what to name the training ground.
The more those in the community buy coins, vote and engage, the more they climb up fan leaderboards which results in them unlocking VIP rewards such as signed shirts and exclusive prizes.
“Our target is not to monetize the traditional hard-core fan [but] to go after the 99.9% of fans that are not in the stadium,” Socios.com CEO Alexandre Dreyfus told SportsPro.
“Instead of owning a share of a company, you own a share of influence. Last week, for example, PSG asked their fans what cover of the FIFA 22 [football video game] they wanted to have for the PSG edition.“
Socios.com has partnered with numerous clubs around the world, including Barcelona, Juventus Inter, Manchester City and Atletico Madrid.
The revenue generated from selling fan tokens is split 50-50 between the club and Socios.
Messi’s arrival in Paris created a huge surge in interest in fan tokens as fans rushed to buy them at PSG.
A bidding war broke out, with the value of the $PSG crypto coin also doubling earlier in the month when Messi was first linked.
That's $PSG crypto coin, more than doubled since Messi was linked to the club!!! pic.twitter.com/MZmJOJpPvd
— Horcrux (@BlaugranaFC26) August 9, 2021
According to Font, this eventually led to PSG making €30m for themselves only in the weekend after Messi joined.
Messi is set to make his PSG debut on Sunday evening away at Reims.
Read more about: Lionel Messi
