The German Bundesliga from a Web3 perspective

Thanks to the 352 readers who are exploring the intersection of Web3 with sports, brand and business. If you are not yet a subscriber, click on "Subscribe" right away - thanks 🙏

Hey, it's Lorenz here. 👋

Today's edition will be all about one of the most important football (⚽️) leagues in the world - the German Bundesliga. We'll dive into pretty much everything Web3 related in the ecosystem - from the league itself to the teams that currently participate (2023/24 season) and start ups that use official licenses.

🔎 We're going to have a look at:

⚽️ The Bundesliga itself in Web3

⚽️ Club activities

🚀 Web3 start ups and Bundesliga clubs

❌ Discontinued partnerships

🧠 General thoughts

⚽️ The Bundesliga itself in Web3

What did they do:

Typically for a league the Bundesliga respectively the "Deutsche Fußball Liga" (which includes the second tier league too) is primarily working with licensing here. From a Web3 perspective that means selling licenses for various categories like fantasy manager, "moments" (a la NBA Topshots) and digital trading cards.

The first steps have been done during the 2021/22 season. Namely it was Sorare with their Web3 based fantasy manager and Bundesliga's long-term partner Topps that released the first NFTs around the league.

Then in May 2022 the DFL announced a "record breaking" deal in the category trading cards, stickers and NFTs. From the NFT side there were three licensees:

• Sorare that extended the existing partnership
• Topps that secured physical, digital and NFT rights for trading cards and stickers
• OneFootball with rights for a digital trading card collection and the "Moments" category - video highlights as NFTs like NBA Topshots

To flexibly take current developments of such a new category into account in the coming years, the NFT licenses were only given for the two seasons 2023/24 and 2024/25. (Link to the announcement of the deal)

Limiting rights by time was a good idea

Two of the Bundesliga's three licensees faced some issues since they went into the partnership.

OneFootball: After raising $300 mio, ostensibly to expand its Web3 ambitions, launching AREA with rights from Serie A and being part of the Bundesliga's NFT license deal, it all fell together. They pulled the plug on AERA, had to go through lay offs and changed CEOs. According to the new CEO, OneFootball was also on the verge of bankruptcy. (If you are proficient in German, I can recommend this podcast with the new CEO)

Topps: While Topps wasn't at the verge of bankruptcy, they still had some major issues with their NFT platform. Their custodial wallet provider and payments solution discontinued their services in early 2023. Although they re-launched their platform with new partners, they haven't done any Bundesliga drops for this season. (Link to the platform's X-profile)

⚽️ Club activities

There are 18 clubs in the German Bundesliga, X of the 2023/24 ones have already had some contact with Web3. The following section will primarily focus on those activations that happened in the club's own ecosystems but will also involve licensing deals and sponsorships.

🔴⚪ FC Bayern Munich:

An overview:

The German record champion has ventured into Web3 relatively early compared to competitors. (2019 collectibles partnership with Stryking Entertainment [ended], first German team licensing to Sorare) However, their efforts were based on licensing deals and those activations therefore didn't happen in their own ecosystem. This likely will change soon as they have agreed on a partnership around Web3 infrastructure with Unyfy in September 2023. Additionally, they won Bitpanda as their official crypto partner in early 2024.

My take:

It wasn't a surprise that FC Bayern was among the first German clubs to do licensing deals in Web3 categories. On the other hand it is surprising to an extend that they have not tested stuff within their own ecosystem or did some smaller activations. However, the partnership with Unyfy (incl. the press statement) and Web3/Blockchain/Metaverse dedicated human resources signal that they will come up with something long-term that has been thought through well.

⚫🟡 Borussia Dortmund:

An overview:

The Dortmund based football club is also in a partnership with Unyfy. In contrast to its "Der Klassiker" rival the partnership exists since 2020 and has already resulted in a product. The "BlackYellow" app is a Web3 enabled tool that aims to engage international audiences. Building on that product BVB and Unyfy will intensify their partnership and will work on additional solutions for fans and partners.

There has also been a NFT drop for the Revier-Derby within the STARENA platform in cooperation with BILD. Beyond that Borussia Dortmund also has a "premiun partner" from the world of crypto, namely Coinbase, and Web3 fantasy manager Sorare.

My take:

It was refreshing to see that the BVB actually ventured into Web3 by building within their own ecosystem. However, it is still relatively isolated and generally leaves room for improvement. By intensifying the partnership this will probably change and maybe we'll see some ideas and components that have been tested internationally in other parts of the club's ecosystem too...

⚪🔴 Vfb Stuttgart

An overview:

The Vfb has started their journey into Web3 with a special edition jersey in March 2022. It was equipped with a NFC chip by CollectId that enabled owners to view exclusive content and how the supported project is developing and to link the jersey with a digital twin on the blockchain. On 21st of November 2023 they launched another "phygital" jersey.

Just one day later their digital collectibles platform launched. On it fans can buy packs, trade player cards, build their team and get rewards & benefits.

My take:

Did I mention that I like it when clubs build Web3 propositions within their own ecosystem? That's also the case for Vfb Stuttgart. Personally, I think the player packs and cards might be just a little bit too expensive for what one gets out of it.

Additionally, phygitising merch imho holds a lot of potential that is partially yet to be explored. However adding a digital component to a physical item is a great way to add value to fans, drive long-term engagement and collect data along the way.

🔴⚫⚪ Eintracht Frankfurt

An overview:

Since 2022 Eintracht Frankfurt hosts an annual event called "Block im Park". It is a Blockchain conference that is held in the Deutsche Bank Park - their stadium. Beyond that when they renewed their stadium seats, a portion of all seats were sold, and in cooperation with youba an "opt-in" digital representation was delivered along with the physical version.

My take:

Personally, I am especially impressed that Eintracht Frankfurt hosts such an event itself. Acting as a platform to explore, discuss and educate on such a topic, is quite an interesting move.

Also adding a digital component or phygitising their old stadium seats feels like a good first project to build upon. However, if Eintracht Frankfurt builds future Web3 related products, programs and activations I'm very interested how they're going to integrate this first step and leverage the already built foundation.

🟢⚪ Vfl Wolfsburg

An overview:

The VW owned football club has ventured into Web3 primarily via partnerships. Together with Fanzone they launched a collection of trading cards in 2021. Beyond that Vfl Wolfsburg has entered a license partnership with Ultimate Champions - a Web3 fantasy league. In the course of their e-sports partnership with ECON they also leveraged a digital Web3-based membership.

Besides those partnerships, Vfl Wolfsburg also developed a corporate-crypto-infrastructure to be able to launch a "metaverse" experience in Decentraland - in their own terms: a walkable website.

To round it all off, they have published a Web3 Whitepaper that is focused on the intersection of Web3 and football.

My take:

Vfl Wolfsburg arguably has the most Web3 experience in the Bundesliga. And while many of their activations were done outside their owned ecosystem, it's different to other sports entities that just gave away their IP.

We realised this with the Web3 whitepaper at the latest. It also gives a great outlook on what they've planned to do in the future. Besides that I was just really impressed by the fact that a football club has published a paper on an innovation focused topic.

Beyond those there are some more clubs that have leveraged Web3 at some point but not to such an extend that I can have a great take on it:

🔴⚪ RB Leipzig has leveraged blockchain tech for their ticketing

Both 🔴⚪ 1. FC Köln and ⚫🔴 Bayer 04 Leverkusen have done some phygital merch, which in the case of Köln even served as a ticket.

🚀 Web3 start ups and Bundesliga clubs:

Great opportunities such as the intersection of Web3 and sport also attract start up founders. It therefore comes as no surprise that there were also some active in the Bundesliga. The two major ones that leveraged the rights of many clubs from the league are both German (and from the city of the record champion) - The Football Company (closed) and TRADAR.

The Football Company offered an app called "The Football Club" which especially focussed on the culture of football with a modern touch thus targeting a younger target audience. Within the app users were able to buy items (officially licensed jerseys) to dress their avatars, represent their fan identity, play games and get rewards.

To build the product the company had licensing agreements with the DFL, SV Darmstadt 98, Vfl Wolfsburg, BVB, Vfb Stuttgart, Eintracht Frankfurt, Werder Bremen, Bayer 04 Leverkusen and some more that are not part of the Bundesliga.

TRADAR enables fans to invest in officially licensed player tokens. The players can be bought and (soon) sold within the mobile app. Besides trading, users also benefit from the player's performance on the pitch by getting "Tradar Credits" that can be turned into new players or even exclusive experiences and VIP tickets. The platform has already partnered with Bundesliga clubs FC Augsburg, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Vfl Wolfsburg and TSG Hoffenheim.

❌ Discontinued partnerships

• Floki - a memecoin and ecosystem named after Elon Musk's dog - was a sleeve sponsor of Bayer 04 Leverkusen
• Baby Doge - another memecoin - was a sponsor of TSG Hoffenheim
• IQONIQ - a fan engagement platform with many partnerships in sports, many of the partners have not received the money they were promised - was a sponsor and sleeve sponsor of Bayer 04 Leverkusen

🧠 General thoughts

Generally the Bundesliga respectively the participating clubs have been relatively reserved regarding Web3, NFTs and all the like. Especially when comparing the ecosystem to that of other leagues. However, this is not something negative per se. To a certain degree I agree with Pet from Sporting Crypto who is a firm believer that brands have first-mover disadvantages when it comes to Web3. At least in sports that was kind of the case.

Why? Because decisions were probably often based on pure numbers that were made by others and possible due to a very interesting mixture of cheap money, a lot of time due to lockdowns and a kind of Rennesaince of the dotcom bubble.

Few really had a well thought out strategy in place and many had financial problems due to Covid, which was a firm ground for models aiming to make a quick buck. Short-term strategies for a technology that will unfold the greatest possible value in the coming future, doesn't seem like a fit for me.

In the Bundesliga however there were very few if any clubs that executed such overly short-term driven models. I don't want to argue that the product-market-fit was always great or the products were outstanding - don't forget it was still about testing. But there wasn't much to be really upset about.

On the other hand, Bundesliga clubs haven't been those who came up with great case studies that are recognised internationally and really elevate the fans' experience. Some are currently working on projects that could be exactly those future case studies, others however may miss this opportunity that this football ecosystem holds in terms of digital innovation.

In summary, I think the German Bundesliga - like few other leagues - respectively its clubs can benefit greatly from Web3 technology. Personally, I feel like now (2024) is a great point in time to develop a long-term strategy with a Web3 proposition that makes sense for all stakeholders + start to execute on it, test, fail and learn.