Blockchain project BlockEx has partnered with an advertising company called Football Media.
The partnership will allow BlockEx services to be branded by different companies. Specifically, sport clubs will be able to release/manage initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency exchanges labelled with their own names. According to the announcement, the aim is to allow sport clubs "to create deeper digital-token based connections with and between their fans, and other desirable brands."
We are excited to announce that we have partnered with #FootballMedia to bring #blockchain-based fan engagement solutions to #sport teams! Learn more about this news on our website: https://t.co/K2nNpfoNTl #football pic.twitter.com/0t5uLfr4b1
— BlockEx (@BlockEx) September 25, 2018
'Trading skins'
BlockEx, which has offices in London, Sofia, and Luxembourg, is a blockchain startup which serves financial institutions. It has three services: a cryptocurrency exchange builder, which includes a tool for creating a new cryptocurrency, an ICO marketplace where projects and investors can link up, and a digital bond service, which uses smart contracts to standardise the process of issuing bonds.
The firm was accepted in July to the sandbox of the UK's Financial Conduct Authority in order to test this latter service. It was one of 29 approved, out of 69 applicants.
Football Media is a "digital advertising platform" that helps "brands to effectively engage with a large predominately male audience that has a wide range of consumer interests," according to its website. It claims to register 41 million unique visitors to its 200 websites monthly.
Adam Leonard, CEO of BlockEx, said: “BlockEx brings an ICO platform with different trading skins, all which sit on a shared Liquidity model. This makes it an excellent fit for sport franchises to create instant vibrant marketplaces to drive deep fan engagement.”
Dean Akinjobi, CEO of Football Media, said: “Through our unique joint solution, sport clubs will be able to increase revenue by launching fan-engagement utility tokens that can be traded between fans.”
In January 2018, the BlockEx raised $24 million in a private sale to accredited investors and a further $28.4 million in an initial coin offering in February.
Football Media's most recent partnership before BlockEx was with sport broadcaster Eurosport.
There is a trend of cryptocurrency companies signing sport-related deals. The most recent example is brokerage eToro, which sign sponsorship deals with no fewer than seven football teams of the English Premier League.
