The Serie A from a Web3 perspective

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Hey, it's Lorenz here. 👋

Today's edition will be all about one of the most important and the most popular football (⚽️) leagues in the world - the Italian Serie A. We'll dive into pretty much everything Web3 related in the ecosystem - from the league itself to all the teams that are part of the league in the upcoming 2024/25 season.

🔎 We're going to have a look at:

⚽️ The Serie A itself in Web3

⚽️ Club activities

🧠 General thoughts

Let's dive into it 🐬

⚽️ The Serie A itself in Web3

The league itself has already dipped their toes into some partnerships in the Web3 space. Spoiler: Not all of them worked out that well... But let's start with what they'd done so far.

The OneFootball partnership

The huge football content platform made its first steps into Web3 back in 2022. The concept was already well-known from the NBA with TopShot and adopted into European football. On "OneFootball Aera" fans were able to buy digital memorabilia in the form of video highlights that were secured onchain.

The first partner and rights holder on this platform was the Serie A. In contrast to the Bundesliga, that also signed a deal with Aera, the first tier Italian league actually made it onto the platform. And across a range of drops a total of just under 250.000 collectibles were distributed. Turns out that this number was a little bit too small.

After raising $300 mio, ostensibly to expand Web3 ambitions, launching AREA with rights from Serie A and then also being part of the Bundesliga's NFT license deal, this OneFootball ambition 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. As a side-note: They've created a new proposition that leverages Web3 tech but is designed more sustainable and to fit into their core business model. Link

The Socios partnership

Socios, the blockchain based rewards app that is best known for the fan token, has been really active in the Serie A. As in many other leagues there have been a lot of clubs that launched a fan token on their platform. But in Italy partnerships even went beyond the clubs and got onto the league level. Besides being an Official partner for the Serie A, Socios also became a Main Sponsor of the Supercoppa Frecciarossa and Coppa Italia Frecciarossa Finals.

This partnership seemed to be dominated by collecting physical-digital memorabilia that were taken out of certain matches themselves. Those collectibles, mostly matchballs, were then offered to users of the Socios app in various ways. Link

The Crypto.com partnership

Back in 2021 Crypto.com became the first Innovation & Technology Partner of Serie A. Besides that they were also sponsor of the Coppa Italia. These partnerships obviously included some classic inventory like being the presenter of the goal of the month etc. Beyond that there were several activations, especially around various cups in the Italian football ecosystem but also the Serie A, that involved offering NFTs on Crypto.com's NFT marketplace.

I'm not fully aware of the pricing strategy of those activations neither have I dug deep enough to know details about benefits that came along with buying such a digital collectible. However, since 20 different versions have been created and only 1.300 collectibles have been distributed, it seems like there were some limiting factors to that - pricing, availability etc.

The Sorare partnership

As most leagues, Serie A has also signed a licensing deal with a blockchain based fantasy manager. And, as most other leagues, Serie A has also signed a deal with the French startup Sorare back in 2022. Link

The Metaverse broadcast

According to themselves Serie A was the first league to broadcast one of its games in a metaverse environment back in 2022. The “activation” was carried out in cooperation with their telecommunications partner at the time and the blockchain firm ConsenSys. With a dedicated room on "The Nemesis" and a game between AC Milan and Fiorentina they especially tried to reach an audience from the MENA-region.

The first 10.000 to enter the space also were rewarded with a dedicated NFT. Link

⚽️ Club activities

It's only a few weeks until the 2024/25 season will start. We will therefore focus on the teams that will be a part of Serie A for this upcoming season.

Of the 20 clubs in the first tier Italian football league, 12 have already had some form of contact with Web3. This means that they have either built something onchain within their own ecosystem or have some sort of licensing or sponsorship deal in place. The latter should be taken with a grain of salt, as having a sponsor that happens to have a Web3/crypto offering doesn't necessarily mean the club itself is innovative.

❤️🖤 AC Milan

An overview:

Firstly, I Rossoneri have partnered with already mentioned Socios to launch their own fan token back in 2021.

They've also teamed up with Fansea to sell the "AC Milan South Sudan Jersey" for charity, which is a digital version of a fan's torn and patched jersey. Each one costs 45€ and as per today 592 of total 75.817 available have been sold.

In 2022 AC Milan announced a NFT Gaming Partner "MonkeyLeague" and collaborated on a collection of in-game-assets with them. I'm not aware if that partnership still exists.

Last year they added Fanblock to their Web3 partner portfolio. The partnership focusses on Fanblock's platform where fans can buy a digital twin part of the pitch that is represented by an NFT. By owning such a block, fans can earn a variety of rewards depending on how much action happens on it. Overall it seems like they've managed to distribute 2.962 blocks among only 178 owners.

Sponsorship-wise AC Milan counts 2 partners with a background in crypto, blockchain etc. One is the exchange BitMEX. The one one is an iGaming company called TG.Casino.

UPDATE: Just like FC Bayern Munich, AC Milan has also entered a partnership with the Austrian Crypto-Fintech Bitpanda that becomes their official crypto trading partner.

My take:

AC Milan has been quite active in regards to Web3. They've done many things with different approaches. However, nothing of it really sticked at least in terms of an advanced fan experience. This is probably due to the structure of those projects. None of them happened within AC Milan's ecosystem and all of them involved a third-party platform that likely paid some kind of fee or minimum guarantee that lead to a missing product-market-fit due to direct-to-fan commercialization in a very nascent market.

It just doesn't seem like there is a greater strategy behind it that may bring all of this together some time.

🔴🔵 Bologna FC 1909

An overview:

Bologna just like AC Milan and many more to come has also partnered with Socios to release their official fan token. Numbers-wise there seem to be over 8.000 token holders. According to Luigi Uva, who's responsible for that topic, ca. 55% of those participated in the polls that are typical for Socios' platform.

Beyond that, I Rossoblu have partnered with Alphaverse. It's a metaverse firm that wants to build the ultimate metaverse for football. It has also teamed up with other clubs from major leagues and those partnerships seem to be more classic commercial ones as the execution also happens outside of the owned ecosystem.

My take:

Bologna FC has really scratched the surface of what's possible when it comes to Web3. Although the participation rate for example seems really solid, I'd wish there was something within their ecosystem that is being treated as a fan experience and marketing activity first and with bigger commercial goals down the line.

⚪️🔵 Como 1907

An overview:

The promoted team has decided to venture into Web3 back in 2022 via a charity auction, which included high-value benefits such as a lifetime Como subscription and a Lake Como travel package.

Beyond that they're still selling digital collectibles/assets on their website. While I'm not quite sure if those come along with a physical version or vice versa, they are benefits that you (were able to) unlock when you buy/bought a collection of 10 pieces.

My take:

While Como 1907's activations haven't been innovative or really at (adjusted) scale like those of Manchester United or McLaren Racing, I really like one fact. They've been doing this in their own ecosystem in some way. However, there's a lot of untapped potential both when it comes to the strategy and concept itself as well as the user experience and how this inventory is leveraged for partnerships.

💙 Empoli FC

An overview:

Empoli FC has created a fan app together with Blocksport that also involves a variety of Web3-enabled aspects. First of all there is their fan token that is part of a kind of loyalty scheme that unlocks benefits based on the number of tokens you own. Beyond that there have been various NFTs that have been launched.

Beyond that the club has partnered with WoV Labs to create phygital experiences. That starts with the jersey of Empoli FC which will be equipped with a smart tag that fans can tap and claim a digital (Web3 based) passport of it that can unlock further benefits.

My take:

I'm unfortunately not aware if those two experiences were actively designed to be combined. However, since the overall user experience and wallet handling in the app isn't made for the mass market yet, they'll have to improve some things in any case.

⚜️ ACF Fiorentina

An overview:

La Viola have partnered with Genuino to release "Viola 9.5". That project is a collection of both digital and physical NFTs. The collection celebrates both the (back then) 95 year history of ACF Fiorentina as well as artworks and stuff from the city's history. Collectibles could be bought in packs and some of them were connected to a physical object.

As far as I’m concerned, this partnership started even earlier with digital twins of physical jerseys to both provide some kind of authentication and to be able to provide new experiences.

My take:

Comparing the project to a lot of other stuff that has been executed in the league, it seems quite refreshing. Unfortunately, ACF Fiorentina didn't continue to use Web3 tools to engage fans or build new offerings. And, the project took place on a third-party platform

⚫🔵 FC Internazionale Milano

An overview:

Just like the city rival, Inter Milan has launched a fan token for the club. This also happened in collaboration with the platform Socios. Quite interestingly the blockchain firm was also the front of shirt partner and promoted both the platform and Inter's fan token.

Besides that there has been another sponsor on Inter's jersey, DigitalBits, that reportedly didn't meet its financial obligations and therefore was removed from several touchpoints.

My take:

In terms of sponsorship from the crypto/blockchain/Web3 space Inter has been very active and has also placed the firms at the most prominent spots of their jersey. Activity-wise however it isn't a club that has been leading the space which is a pity because they're one of the most famous world wide.

⚪️⚫️ Juventus FC

An overview:

The first ever blockchain-based fan token was launched by Juventus. This already happened in 2019. Their partner? Socios which just got founded a year before. The partnership still continues to be in place.

Beyond that they've teamed up with a Web3 fashion house "INBETWEENERS" and adidas to release a collection of digital items. Buyers then had the chance to win exclusive prizes and experiences from the Juventus ecosystem, which included the 23/24 away and third kits featuring graphics from the Inbetweeners. There were three different tiers that started at 0,14 ETH ($430+). From the total of 1897 collectibles 1360 are distributed as per today.

On the partnership side there's obviously Socios but also another company called ZONDACRYPTO which operates a crypto exchange and is now part of the jersey's sleeve.

My take:

It's quite interesting to see a club team up with a Web3 native project and their IP. Obviously, I'm not aware of the commercials of this project, but it's nevertheless an interesting thing. Plus, wether you're fan of them or not, their will to drive innovation should be acknowledged.

🦅 S.S. Lazio

An overview:

Le Aquile have been pursuing all their Web3 activity with one partner basically. It's the still biggest crypto exchange in the world, Binance. This partnership has "produced" a range of activations. That starts with the club's fan token - yes a fan token without Socios. More interestingly they've also experimented with NFT ticketing. For the 2022/23 they've introduced single and season tickets in the form of NFTs. They were opt-in and unlocked more benefits and rewards on the fan token/community platform on Binance. As far as I understand the normal ticket has to be bought first before the NFT ticket can be claimed.

My take:

The most interesting thing here is obviously the NFT ticketing case. It's something that imho we've seen too seldomly in European football. It's a case that doesn't cost money and provides fans with extra value. Plus, the "onchain network of fans" can be grown which might become handy soon. However, this didn't happen within Lazio's own digital ecosystem and the is dependence on their partner Binance.

💙 SSC Napoli

An overview:

Gli Azzurri have launched their own fan token back in 2021. Their partner of choice was once again the Socios platform.

Beyond that they've had a crypto partner for the 2023/24 season. The sponsor was Upbit, a South Korean crypto exchange, that was featured at the back of the team's jersey in the according season.

My take:

There's a lot of untapped opportunity for such a club. I'd love to see them approach the Web3 topic from a more marketing/fan engagement focused side, come up with a strategy and build a commercial model around that. At least imho this would bring more value to all stakeholders, especially in the long term.

🟡🔴 AS Roma

An overview:

Lazio's local rival has also created their own fan token. In fact, they did it even earlier. As their partner AS Roma chose Socios.com.

Beyond that I Giallorossi has also had a sponsor with crypto background. It was DigitalBits, which later also partnered with Inter Milan. They were featured at the front of AS Roma's jersey. Additionally, they agreed on accepting DigitalBits' crypto currencies in their stores.

My take:

Another club that hasn't tapped into all of their potential when it comes to Web3. And, they'd have even more fans that are likely not part of their owned ecosystem but follow them on social media etc.

🐂 Torino FC

An overview:

The football club from Turin has been exploring Web3 via an external platform. They've teamed up with RealFevr, a startup from Portugal that focuses on football and has some other partnerships at league and association level in place. The partnership with Torino FC was set up to create a set of exclusive video digital collectibles of iconic football moments from the club. That also involves moments from the club's history.

Beyond that I Granata have an Official Crypto Partner. It's a crypto exchange called YouHodler.

My take:

Since the partnership with RealFevr could come to an end after this year, it will be really interesting to see if and how Torino FC continues to deal with the Web3 topic. Their current offering seems more interesting because of the simple fact that it differs from many others in the league. What's quite "strange" however is the fact that all those moments are from Torino FC games but kind of focus on the opponent.

⚪️⚫️ Udinese Calcio

An overview:

In 2022 Udinese Calcio joined an already big group of Serie A clubs that have their own fan token. To launch it, they've teamed up with the most active fan token partner in Serie A, Socios.

Beyond that they've just announced a new sleeve partner for the upcoming season. It's kind of a crypto company. More precisely it's a memecoin called "Apu Apustaja" that wants to leverage this partnership in order to get more recognized around the world.

My take:

It's nothing overly exciting here. However, wether the meme coin partnership will last or not, it's something different than the sponsors with a crypto, blockchain or Web3 background of other clubs.

🧠 General thoughts

Is the Serie A the most active ecosystem when it comes to Web3? In any case there's been a lot of activity. But does quantity equal quality and what impact can all those offerings have long-term?

Overall the league's Web3 ecosystem has been dominated by licensing and sponsorship deals. That has resulted in a lot to write about but very little that can be analyzed any further or that provides a great case study for other sports organizations.

One could compare Serie A's Web3 ecosystem to the one of the Premier League. There's been a lot more activities than for example in the German Bundesliga.

However, what kind of misses in Serie A are these best of industry case studies that we were able to find in the Premier League. While both Manchester United and Manchester City have also counted on commercial partners to create their Web3 offerings, they've also managed to deal with the topic more thoughtful, I guess. When you take a look what they've created it seems like this is part of a strategy and should be valuable and accessible for all fans.

This isn't really the case for Serie A clubs, especially the biggest ones. It seems like the whole category has mostly been approached from a commercial-first angle by many clubs. Just take a look at the ecosystem, a lot of sponsorship deals, many fan tokens and most other concepts have been executed on third-party platforms and probably involved some kind of licensing agreement with a fee for the platform.

It will be very interesting to see if the currently most "popular" model will shift sometime soon. Personally, I'd love to see a case study from Italy that combines a strategic fan-centric offering with a commercial model that makes sense in the short and long term. Looking at the current narrative in the sports x Web3 market that could likely be a free-to-claim model within the club's ecosystem that supports existing infrastructure and is executed with a sponsor or partner.

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