For 26 years, Italian tire maker Pirelli was the shirt sponsor of Inter Milan’s Serie A club. That deal ended last year when Pirelli was replaced by Socios, the crypto fan token company, which paid 16 million dollars to have “$Inter Fan Token” in the center front of the team’s jersey, while “by Socios.com” appeared in a smaller font below the jersey. fan token mark.

partners makes crypto fan tokens for other major European soccer teams like Juventus, AC Milan, FC Barcelona, ​​​​Real Madrid, PSG, Manchester City and Arsenal. The company is also making inroads into major US leagues through fan loyalty and rewards sponsorships with teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLS. All of those leagues except the NFL are increasingly adopting jersey patch sponsorships. While the Socios brand can already be found in major US venues such as Madison Square Garden, Crypto.com Arena, and SoFi Stadium, CEO Alex Dreyfus insists jersey sponsorships will not be part of the expansion. American token company for fans.

“Absolutely not,” Dreyfus told SportTechie. “We don’t see value for ourselves in sponsoring shirts, because when you do it, you do it for brand recognition. We don’t care about brand recognition. We want people to buy the token of the team they are supporting.”

Instead, Dreyfus plans for Socios to buy luxury boxes at US sports arenas, like the box the company has already bought at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. The long-term goal of the company is for US fans to watch the games from these boxes as an added benefit of holding US fan tokens.

“We are going to pay VIP boxes, here with the Nets we have a box [at Barclays Center], he said. “With the token that we are going to build one day, we will give [fan token holders] access to these VIP boxes, and we’ll have like 30 or so around the world. But it is not that we spend money on a shirt, because that will not bring users. This is from four years of experience, and I can really attest to that. It’s not going to attract users.”

partners was Inter Milan Kit Sponsor for just one season. Instead, the top-tier Italian club had a shirt patch deal with cryptocurrency brand DigitalBits for the 2022-23 season. However, Inter Milan you have not received payments from DigitalBits and claims the company owes them $17 million. Former soccer star and owner of Inter Miami David Beckham joined Digital Bits as a brand ambassador in March to promote NFT for the company’s “metaverse.”

“DigitalBits has nothing to do with ‘fan tokens’. It is an empty-shell company that signed deals that could not pay with ZERO product,” Dreyfus recently wrote in his LinkedIn.