Atletico Mineiro of Brazil Issues Crypto Fan Tokens

By Prashant Jha

Atletico Mineiro, a Premier League football club from Brazil, has launched a crypto token for fans called the “GaloCoin” recently. The GaloCoin’s name has been derived from the mascot of the club, which is called “galo” in the Portuguese language. The “galo” basically refers to a rooster, which serves as the club’s official mascot.

The fan token has been designed on the basis of a platform called the Footcoin. Footcoin is a platform which uses an Ethereum blockchain-powered core to issue utility tokens. The GaloCoin follows the principle of a stablecoin. It is pegged to the exchange rate of the country’s national fiat currency, the Brazilian Real. As a result, each GaloCoin’s value is exactly the same as that of one Brazilian Real.

What purpose does this fan token serve? Well, it allows fans of Atletico Mineiro to use these tokens to buy tickets to matches, get their hands on official merchandise and more. Most excitingly, having these tokens allows them to take part in discount programs. However, there is a catch when it comes to owning these coins. There is a minimum ownership amount as users must buy at least 50 GaloCoins to be able to use them. 50 such tokens cost around $13.

Recent times have seen increasing instances of sports teams, especially football teams, making use of crypto-based utility tokens. In September 2018, a leading soccer team from France, Paris Saint-Germain collaborated with Socios.com, a blockchain platform. The collaboration led to the launch of a Fan Token Offering or FTO. Another well-known club, Italy’s Juventus followed suit soon after, launching the Juventus Official Fan Token, in association with the same blockchain platform as Paris Saint-Germain.

Other football clubs across Europe that have adapted to this trend include Hotspur, Brighton, Tottenham, Newcastle United, Leicester City, Cardiff City and more. Even the UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) have put in place a ticketing system powered by blockchain technology. The 2018 UEFA Europa League final match saw a successful trial of the blockchain-based ticketing platform with about half the tickets having been sold through it.