Football clubs are not insensitive to the “charm” of NFTs and the metaverse. Given the market’s success last year, clubs see it as a way to bring in new revenue. Take the example of the legendary English club Liverpool FC.
Liverpool’s failed NFT attempt last March
Liverpool already know the NFT. Indeed, last March, the English club had completed its baptism of fire. The club had put up for sale a NFT collection called LFC Heroes Club Collection. As its name suggests, the collection brought together the greatest legends of the club. The sale of these NFTs was done through Sotheby’s, the world famous auction house. The sale lasted 5 days and a certain percentage of the winnings went into the coffers of the LFC foundation, a charity association.
Unfortunately, the sale did not have the expected success. Indeed, in the end, the sale generated “only” £1.125 million. Above all, 95% of NFTs did not find takers. In concrete terms, of the 171,072 NFTs put up for sale, 9,721 were sold, or only 5.7%. During a conference held last Thursday, Drew Crisp, vice-president of Liverpool’s digital marketing department, returned to this subject.
“Why did we try LFC Heroes? We could have sat on the sidelines and just commented on what everyone was saying about NFTs or just seen what other people were doing, but we wanted to know what it takes to create them, sell them, market them, understand who buys them, and you can’t figure that out unless you try. You have to be in the field to play the game and we had to be in the NFT world to understand it. Drew Crisp, Vice President of Liverpool’s Digital Marketing Department
The mythical club of Liverpool wants to retry the NFT experience
Has this experience discouraged the club from re-entering the NFT market? No way ! For Drew Crisp, this March launch is part of the learning curve. Without giving too many details, he made it clear that the club would again offer NFT and metaverse products. Drew Crisp has indeed explained that for a club of the stature of Liverpool, entering the NFT market was a no-brainer. For him, it is even a “responsibility” of the club vis-à-vis its global community of supporters. Of course, if he does not talk about it, we also understand the financial stake around NFTs for Liverpool.
“We have a responsibility to our fans to step into those worlds. We know how important sport is, we know what it can do for mental health, physical health and communities. For us as a club, one billion fans around the world, we want to give them an experience and this technology and this world allows us to give them an experience and bring the authenticity of football wherever they are found in the world. This is absolutely something we should be heading towards and not hesitating about. Drew Crisp, Vice President of Liverpool’s Digital Marketing Department
The English football club therefore intends to try its luck again soon on the NFT market. It must be said that many clubs have already invested in this area. With the pandemic, most football clubs have seen their income drop significantly. With the confinements, the box office did not generate as much as in previous years. Similarly, income related to broadcast of matches have fallen sharply with the cut of the championships.
If the situation has now returned to normal on the sporting level, the clubs are still shooting the “economic burden” of the pandemic. So it is not surprising to see them diversifying their products to attract additional revenue.
In addition, the arrival of the metaverse, a domain bordering on NFTs, has everything to attract clubs. Incidentally, rival club Liverpool, Manchester City, is already working on products from the metaverse. For example, the club is in the process of build your own stadium in the metaverse !
Finally, as mentioned by Drew Crisp, getting into NFTs is also a way toattract a new kind of audience. While Reds supporters are the primary target, an NFT sale also brings together all types of investors.
“We learned a lot from it. We were wrong about some things, we were right about some things. We have an audience that we didn’t have before and an idea of where NFTs could play in our ecosystem and that they’re not something to be feared. It was a very good test and learning for us. Drew Crisp, Vice President of Liverpool’s Digital Marketing Department
As in the league currently, the Liverpool club did not have the desired results in their first NFT initiative! However, the club intends to try its luck again. When is the next Reds NFT collection? Unless it takes the form of a metaverse…
