The New England Patriots are partnering with Socios in a deal that could lead to the National Football League’s first fan token.
The U.S. football team announced Friday it made the first NFL deal with Socios, a platform with an established presence in the European soccer world. Big-name clubs including Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain and FC Barcelona all have their own tokens on the site.
Socios made its foray into the American sports market in October when it announced partnerships with 24 National Basketball Association (NBA) teams. However, U.S. securities laws are seen to be a potential hurdle for tokens promising rewards for sports superfans, along with league-wide partnership implications. No such tokens have yet to launch in any of the major U.S. sports leagues.
“‘Patriots Fan Predictions, presented by Socios.com,’ will reward New England fans with prizes for correctly answering five matchup-related questions during each week of the [football] season on Patriots.com and the Patriots mobile app,” was as much as a Friday press release would specify.
Read more: Fan Token Platform Chiliz Plans to Splash $50M on Expansion Into US Sports Leagues
The deal with Kraft Sports + Entertainment also includes Socios’ first partnership with Major League Soccer (MLS). Robert Kraft is the owner of both the New England Patriots and New England Revolution soccer team.
Chiliz (CHZ), the crypto token that powers the Socios platform, jumped sharply on the news, according to data from CoinGecko.
