Cryptocurrencies penultimate bet pandemic weakened football - It's not the same again. Since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020, football has not been what it was. After finishing the year of the pandemic tumbling, the ball has rolled during the 2020-2021 season with difficulties.

It has done so at least in major tournaments, including delayed Euro, which have been played in the middle of a good number of positive coronavirus. But something fundamental has been missing: the fans filling stadiums that, without them, have presented a poor, gray and disheveled appearance.

It's not a question of romanticism. If the pandemic has shown anything, it is that, as global as it has become the king of sport in recent decades, long-time club fans, those who come every two weeks to the stadiums paying their entrance and spending their money on scarves and t-shirts with the colors of their usual team, are the heart of the business.

Without them, football can continue to work, but not for long and certainly not in the same way. UEFA, the governing body of football in Europe, estimates that the pandemic and the post-pandemic have meant a loss of between 7,000 and 8,000 million euros for the teams of the old continent.

The hole is big enough that companies from booming sectors such as cryptocurrencies, which are still on the other hand shaking the fright of having seen bitcoin collapse in recent months, have been encouraged to knock on the door of some of the best teams in the world to explore the possibility of doing business together.

Cryptocurrencies penultimate bet pandemic weakened football

In need of additional income streams as never before, some have not thought twice before saying yes. Cryptocurrencies have landed in football.

The latest to join this trend has been Inter Milan, one of the most prestigious clubs in Italy. At the end of July, the club announced that it was terminating its sponsorship agreement with the tire brand Pirelli.

After almost 25 years boasting of promoting itself in the breasts of legends such as Ronaldo, Vieri, Recoba or Adriano, the company is replaced by Chiliz, a company specialized in offering blockchain technology to sports clubs interested in carrying out projects related to digital currencies.

These are in turn the developers of Socios.com, the platform that will run $Inter. It is a cryptocurrency whose specific date of release is still unknown but that will not only be announced on the front of the players ' shirt, but will be the vehicle through which fans will be able to access raffles, contests, exclusive products and experiences of all kinds, including VIP trips.

Cryptocurrencies penultimate bet pandemic weakened football

"The front of the t-shirt is the ideal place to sponsor the start of this collaboration and increase awareness of the opportunities and commitment to innovation offered by $INTER Fan Token," he explained in a statement released by Inter Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of Chiliz.

The nerazurri will not be alone in this adventure. In the field of European football, teams such as Milan, eternal rival of Inter, Juventus, Barcelona, Arsenal, Manchester City, Paris Saint Germain, Valencia and Atlético de Madrid have already joined Socios.com to issue their own digital tokens, which fans can change through the app Socios.com for club assets.

As with the rest of cryptocurrencies, their value is subject to extreme variations. If, for some reason, fans begin to acquire them en masse, their price skyrockets, and if after this inflationary moment the fans burn in desire to get rid of them, their value plummets.

This is exactly what has happened, for example, in recent days with the PSG token, whose value rose a couple of days ago above 50 dollars coinciding with the presentation Messi as a new player of the Parisians. Previously, this had remained stable in June at just over $ 10. The price, however, was rising as the weeks passed and the Argentine star exhausted his time to renew with Barcelona.

Cryptocurrencies penultimate bet pandemic weakened football

Something similar happened with the Atlético de Madrid token, which in the last year has skyrocketed in two specific moments: January, when the team finished the first round of the League in first position with a good advantage over the other two candidates for the title, Real Madrid and Barça, and June, when those of Cholo Simeone took the title.

"I don't think it's opportunistic in the sense that cryptocurrencies have done very well through the pandemic, the sport is on its knees and will take your money from wherever you can get it," Ben Pincus, director of trade associations in Formula 1, has explained about it in statements collected by the Financial Times.

These good short-term prospects do not prevent, as with everything related to cryptocurrencies, there are doubts among experts about whether in 5 or 10 years view digital currencies will really be an alternative to conventional money.

Cryptocurrencies penultimate bet pandemic weakened football

For some analysts, companies like Socios.com you can rest assured: "The pandemic accelerated so many different consumption trends... Whether it's my parents, who I never thought would find out how to get to Netflix, or whether it's the people who invest in cryptocurrencies," Noah Garden, MLB's chief revenue officer, told FT, before adding, "I do think he's here to stay."

While these doubts are cleared, for now, they explain from Chiliz itself, their alliances with more than 40 sports organizations (among their travel companions we must also add NBA teams such as the Boston Celtics or the 76ers and Formula 1 teams such as Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo, among many others) have already yielded benefits valued at 150 million dollars.