Last month, French football giant Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) became a node validator for the Chiliz Chain — a first for a sports club, marking a significant milestone in the evolution of the Chiliz Chain and also in sports web3 integration.
A known innovator in the sports x web3 space, PSG is no stranger to setting trends having become the first club to appoint a Head of Lifestyle and most recently Head of Web3 in the form of Pär Helgosson who joined Chiliz CEO Alexandre Dreyfus earlier this week for an X Spaces discussion about what the latest partnership means for the club, its fans and, more broadly, for the sports industry.
Chiliz’s credentials as the “platform for sports brands to play” and the “biggest in the market right now” were crucial to PSG’s decision to deepen its involvement in the ecosystem. “There are a lot of people contacting me these days, but coming from web1 you kind of see the cycles coming and for me it’s really important to see what happens with players through tough times. Two things tend to happen: either people keep building and innovating or they don’t, and I like to work with the ones that do,” Helgosson explained.
Chiliz’s recently announced new tokenomics were another crucial aspect, since they give PSG the opportunity to implement a circular sustainable model that is key to Helgosson’s long-term vision for the partnership. “The new tokenomics allows us to implement this circular sustainable model, running the node and using the funds and the means generated in ways it makes sense to build the fan base and build utilities and experiences,” Helgosson said.
Will PSG set a new trend in global sports?
PSG becoming a node validator for the Chiliz Chain is a long-term move bound to bring huge value to the club and its fans over time as the Chiliz ecosystem evolves and grows. However, Helgosson already envisions clear benefits that the fans of the Ligue 1 champions can look forward to in the short term. “If you stake your tokens on our validator node you will get access to things that otherwise you wouldn’t get, and receive different perks that you might not receive otherwise. This is going to allow us to engage, and activate and re-engage the fan base in ways we couldn’t do before.”
In the mid and long term, having a complementary channel through which the Club can own and control the relationship with its millions of fans, and deliver tailored engagement is a crucial part of PSG’s vision for the future, as Helgosson explained: “We can uniquely identify our fans and we can engage them directly and differently because we can build a direct relationship. We have hundreds of millions of fans across all the channels, but we also want to build a complementary channel and platform where we are in control of that engagement and not always going through third parties.”
Will other clubs follow PSG steps this time as they did years back when the French champions became the first major club to set up a Lifestyle team or launch a Fan Token? That was one of the topics raised by the members of the Chiliz community. According to the responses shared by Chiliz CEO Alexandre Dreyfus and Pär Helgosson, the prospects are good.
“I have already received whatsapp messages from several European clubs asking about the partnership and showing interest in becoming the next node validators of the Chiliz Chain,” Dreyfus said.
Building relevant products, key to drive adoption
The founder and CEO of Chiliz dreams that one day all major football clubs will follow PSG’s steps and all their fans will be able to benefit from this new economy, though this could take up to 10 years. “This is a key step towards more deals in the next few years, but it will take time,” Dreyfus said, “99 percent of our partners don’t know what a node validator is today, yet they are going to have to embrace it, they are going to have to recruit talent and set up operations like PSG is doing.”
Having also been contacted by clubs that want to know more about the partnership, Helgosson suggested sports brands start exploring web3 before it’s too late: “A lot of brands define risk as being first, but I think that now the risk by definition is being too slow. Because, back in the day you could take 5 or 10 years and it was okay but that has changed. Not engaging now is the biggest mistake.”
As sports brands gradually deepen their involvement in web3 and build strategies to achieve their different goals, educating their fan bases will be critical for them to succeed. Chiliz has been onboarding sports fans to the space since its foundation in 2018 and has learned valuable lessons along the way, as its CEO Alexandre Dreyfus explained: “There are different tribes within the sports fan community and there are different products for the different tribes, and web3 can provide different solutions such as ticketing, certification of jerseys and other official memorabilia. The best way to onboard fans is not to convince them that the tech is relevant but to build products that are relevant to them.”
