Fans Receive NFTs During Live Soccer Game

During a Sunday match between A.C. Milan and A.S. Roma of the Italian Serie A professional soccer league, cryptocurrency history was made with the first-ever live airdrop of non-fungible tokens to fans of the Red Devils. This airdrop coincided with key moments within the match, and the blockchain transactions were handled by the NFT startup Chiliz.

In a matter of minutes, the game-day airdrop was managed without a hitch. Fans were able to exchange Chiliz tokens from the virtual wallets installed on their smartphones, which had a “virtual item” displayed for the fans to collect. The fan-centric airdrop was designed to give a digital football experience to the users, a goal that will be carried out over the next months by Chiliz and its community of soccer fans.

The NFTs used by Chiliz are “virtual items” and can be represented by three forms: a “collectible”, an “equity”, and a “reward”. Collectibles are the items that appear on screen in-game, and they exist in the world and can be bought and sold. Equity items are special tokens created by the game developers and they will be distributed to the fans who attend the event. Reward items are items that can be earned by the fans and used to improve their performance in-game.

Many A.C. Milan fans were introduced to the world of cryptocurrencies by their beloved soccer club. The NFTs minted by A.C. Milan have tangible value because they are based on the Chiliz token, which trades as CHZ, and which jumped by more than 170% during the match.

The Chiliz NFT platform has expanded to include other major soccer clubs such as Manchester City and Sao Paulo. The company plans to expand to eSports as well. In March 2018, the Italian National Bank (Banca d'Italia) recognized that Chiliz was not a money service business and therefore Chiliz did not need a license to operate, and its operations could go forward, and in April 2018, it was launched as the world's first official FPL game. In April 2018, it launched the platform, along with several of its team members to a closed beta.