What Are Fan Tokens and How Do They Work?

Fan tokens have, over the past few years, become one of the most interesting ways to connect the worlds of sports and crypto.

Football and other sports clubs are constantly looking for new ways to get closer to their global fanbase, while supporters want more than a classic season ticket or TV broadcast.

This is where fan tokens come in – digital tokens that promise more engagement, more rewards, and a more personalised fan experience.

In this article, we break down what fan tokens are, how they work, some of the most popular examples, the benefits they offer, and what the future might look like for this segment.

What Are Fan Tokens?

Fan tokens are a specific type of crypto asset issued by sports clubs and organisations via specialised platforms. They are digital assets that can be owned by fans of teams, players, or celebrities and through which they can receive certain value and benefits.

Unlike shares, fan tokens do not give you an ownership stake in the club – there are no dividends, profit-sharing, or a formal vote in club management.

Instead, they function as utility tokens – a kind of digital pass for a deeper relationship with the club. They can:

• enable participation in polls and certain decisions (for example, choosing the goal celebration song or details of the kit design)
• unlock exclusive rewards and experiences (collectibles, merchandise, VIP tickets, meet-and-greet events)
• provide access to special promotions, discounts, or digital loyalty badges

Fan tokens are usually issued in limited supply and can be traded – fans can buy, sell, or swap them on supported platforms.

Although they are generally not used as a broad means of payment outside their specific fan token ecosystems, within those platforms they serve as a key to exclusive content and different types of engagement.

They are primarily designed as a tool for enhancing the fan experience, rather than as a traditional financial investment.

How Do Fan Tokens Work?

Fan tokens work in a similar way to other cryptocurrencies: they are blockchain-based tokens with a limited supply that can be traded on crypto exchanges.

A club or team usually partners with a blockchain platform that creates fan tokens on their behalf. During the initial sale (FTO – Fan Token Offering), fans can buy these tokens at a pre-set price.

Later on, their value can go up or down depending on the club’s performance, market demand, project development, and real-life use cases.

However, what makes fan tokens attractive to the most loyal supporters are not necessarily the potential profits, but the non-financial perks. In practice, fan tokens function like a digital membership card.

Fan tokens often also come with voting rights.

As mentioned earlier, token holders can take part in official club polls and decisions – for example, choosing the message in the locker room, the design of a special-edition kit, or elements of fan activities.

In that sense, they are similar to shareholder rights or governance tokens in DAOs (special tokens that give voting rights in decentralised autonomous organisations): the more tokens you hold, the more “weight” your vote has in polls.

Some clubs also introduce a minimum number of tokens required for a fan to be able to vote or access certain benefits at all.

Because of this, fan tokens are not seen only as another form of crypto asset, but as an automated, blockchain-powered membership system that gives fans a stronger sense of influence and connection with their favourite club or sports star.

Examples of Fan Tokens and a Brief History

Fan tokens are a relatively new phenomenon.

The first major wave came in 2019, when clubs like Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain were among the first to launch their official fan tokens.

You can read more about this in our article: How Football Embraced the Crypto Hype

Since then, the network has expanded to dozens of clubs and organisations around the world. Some of the most notable examples include:

• Juventus (JUV) – one of the pioneers, with its first Fan Token Offering (FTO) in 2019. Fans, for example, voted on the goal celebration song played at Allianz Stadium.
• Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) – fans have taken part in choosing locker-room messages and various marketing activations. The token saw strong spikes in popularity during the club’s Champions League runs.
• FC Barcelona (BAR), Manchester City (CITY), Atlético Madrid, Inter, Flamengo and many others – these clubs use fan tokens for polls, rewards, and VIP experiences (such as pre-match playlists, captain’s armband designs, and exclusive events).
• Among the many fan tokens on the market are tokens from clubs across different leagues and regions. One example is the Santos FC fan token (SANTOS), linked to Brazilian club Santos FC. Like other fan tokens, it can be bought and sold on crypto platforms and used to participate in club-related activities and rewards programs.

In just a few years, fan tokens have grown from an experiment into one of the most widespread “non-financial” use cases of blockchain technology in sports.

How to Buy Fan Tokens

In practice, buying fan tokens works very similarly to buying any other cryptocurrency. The first step is to choose the fan token of the club or organisation you’re interested in.

You can buy, sell, and trade fan tokens on the Bitcoin Store platform just like any other cryptocurrency. However, to fully unlock the utility of a fan token, you need to use it within the ecosystem built for it – most often via the Socios.com platform.

Most fan tokens are connected to the Chiliz (CHZ) ecosystem, where the native CHZ token is used as “fuel” to purchase fan tokens on Socios.com. You can also buy, sell, and trade CHZ on the Bitcoin Store platform.

What Are the Benefits of Fan Tokens?

For Fans

Fans from anywhere in the world can take part in club activities almost as much as those who live in the club’s home city.

This is especially valuable for clubs with a large international fan base.

Fan token holders can win VIP tickets, signed shirts, meet-and-greet sessions with players, and even the chance to walk onto the pitch or take part in official club activations.

Instead of just passively watching matches, fans get the chance to influence certain club decisions in a real way, which strengthens their sense of belonging and connection to the club.

For Clubs and Sports Organisations

Fan tokens open up an additional monetisation channel – through the initial token sale and ongoing participation in the ecosystem, clubs can generate new revenue streams from their global fan base.

Through voting, polls, and different activities, clubs gain valuable insights into fan preferences, which can be used for better planning in marketing, product development, and communications.

By adopting fan tokens early, clubs can position themselves as innovators and get ready for future Web3 models.

Fan Tokens and the Future of Fandom

Fan tokens have already added a new dimension to the relationship between clubs and fans – shifting the role of supporters from passive spectators to active participants in the club’s story.

The first phase of development has mostly focused on polls and rewards, but the next step is expansion into a broader Web3 sports ecosystem: integration with fantasy and manager games, sports metaverse experiences, the use of fan tokens in decentralised applications, and a move towards self-custody models.

If they continue to evolve towards real utility and high-quality digital experiences, fan tokens could become a key part of the future sports ecosystem – especially in a time when fandom is increasingly moving into the digital world.