On May 4, Major League Soccer (MLS), the US’s top professional soccer league, announced a collaboration with Socios, a fan token platform that will provide supporters access to “unique prizes, polls, and opportunities”. Socios collaborates with 26 Major League Soccer (MLS) clubs and aims to provide fan interaction experiences and rewards, although no fan tokens have been revealed as of yet. No specific fan involvement activities were mentioned in the release; however, it did note that “MLS envisions that fans will be able to have the chance to win prizes for making correct game-related predictions and for correctly answering questions.”
🇺🇸Welcome to https://t.co/2FROhSNgw8, @MLS. pic.twitter.com/340He1OzQA
— Socios.com (@socios) May 4, 2022
On Twitter, though, MLS supporters have reacted negatively to the announcement, with some expressing their displeasure with the arrangement. A short look at Twitter reveals that the vast majority of messages from league fans have been critical, with many pointing to Socios’ previous agreements with European soccer leagues.
— Carlos (@OsoFresh138) May 5, 2022
The mainstream media’s portrayal of the growing market may have spurred fan backlash. The official Twitter account for Dynamo Theory, the community that supports the Houston Dynamo MLS team, tweeted today that:
You will never see fans across MLS come together over something like they have this Socios sponsorship. Remarkable.
— Dynamo Theory (@dynamotheory) May 4, 2022
According to its website, Socios has worked with over 125 sports clubs in eight international sports leagues. The majority of collaborations entail the development of fan tokens, which are used by purchasers to participate in events and gain unique access to goodies. According to CoinGecko data, fan tokens have a market capitalization of around $255 million. The vast bulk of these tokens come from European soccer clubs.
It has released non-fungible tokens (NFT) for European soccer clubs in collaboration with the Chiliz (CHZ) platform to engage with fans, which includes providing memorabilia. To produce NFTs, Socios and Chiliz inked marketing agreements with 13 NFL clubs.
Read more:
- Chilliz (CHZ) protocol-based fan tokens surge after Socios partnership
- National Football League teams collaborate with fan token platform Socios
