Juventus Fan Token Explained: How JUV Increases Engagement and Gives Sports Fans Real-World Influence — AAX Academy

If you believe cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are only about payments, investments, and trading, then you definitely need to check out fan tokens that have been disrupting the sports industry.

Fan tokens, cryptocurrencies designed to offer voting rights, exclusive benefits, and other use-cases for holders, have turned passive spectators into active supporters who engage actively and influence some of the decisions of their favorite clubs.

At the same time, teams have access to an extra revenue stream that they can leverage to become more competitive.

And now, we will introduce you to the Juventus Fan Token (JUV), the cryptocurrency of the popular Italian football club Juventus F.C.

What Is the Juventus Fan Token (JUV)?

The Juventus Fan Token (JUV) is a cryptocurrency representing voting rights as well as various benefits and rewards for holders, which they can leverage to engage with and influence the decisions of the Juventus F.C. football club.

Here are some examples of how Juventus fans can use their fan tokens:

• Choosing a new goal celebration song and team bus design
• Earning free coins during token hunts
• Winning unique experiences, such as a free tour at the Allianz Stadium
• Claiming exclusive rewards like Juventus non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles of partner businesses
• Receiving discounts on club merchandise

Launched in November 2019, JUV is the first fan token of the Chiliz platform. Chiliz is a fan engagement platform that connects the sports, e-sports, and entertainment industries with cryptocurrencies via a blockchain-powered ecosystem.

Most importantly, Chiliz specializes in fan tokens like JUV that run on top of the cryptocurrency project’s permissioned Proof-of-Authority (PoA) Ethereum sidechain called Socios.

Available as a beta web application and as a smartphone app on Android and iOS, Socios is the platform where all interactions occur between fans and clubs.

The fan engagement platform combines the benefits of blockchain technology, smart contracts, and its own crowd-control engine to allow token holders to vote on polls that are transparent, publicly auditable, and free of manipulation.

Teams like Juventus can launch either a binding or a non-binding poll on Socios. The main difference between the two is that the club must fulfill the fans’ decisions with the prior. While they don’t necessarily have to do so for the latter option, teams can utilize non-binding polls to collect the feedback and insights of their followers on a wide variety of topics.

In addition to participating in the decision-making process of the teams, followers can use Socios to trade fan tokens, earn rewards and badges for engagement, and participate in activities like predictions and contests related to their favorite clubs.

What Should I Know About JUV’s Tokenomics and Price Dynamics?

After exploring the essentials, it’s time to check out the Juventus Fan Token’s tokenomics.

Launched as the first fan token on Socios in November 2019, JUV is available both on Chiliz and as a BEP-20 token on the Binance Smart Chain.

Initially, the Italian football club’s cryptocurrency was distributed to contributors via a Fan Token Offering (FTO) on Socios, a special type of token sale where a team issues a digital asset and sells it to users (just like in the case of an ICO).

The project also held a Binance Launchpool campaign in December 2020, in which users could farm 210,084 JUV. For comparison, 1,315,907 tokens were distributed to contributors via other channels, including:

• Fan Token Offering on Socios at the initial price of 2 EUR ($2.37)
• The Pokémon-like token hunt event, in which fans could collect free JUV by utilizing an augmented reality (AR) solution via their smartphones

Later on — as the club owns all the locked tokens that are out of circulation –, Juventus issued more JUV, which can be bought and sold on Socios and secondary marketplaces (e.g., cryptocurrency exchanges). And this is the reason why the earlier 1.5 million circulating supply (allocations for FTO, Launchpool, and token hunt) has surged to 2,204,372 as of August 5.

Although, it’s important to mention that the club burned 10,000 JUV tokens during a Socios event called the Fan Token Burn Super Weekend, where multiple football teams moved a specific amount of coins out of circulation based on the results of their matches.

Like other fan tokens, Juventus also features an initial value peg to Chiliz’s native CHZ token, which the club determined before launching its FTO.

In terms of utility, JUV holders can access the following activities and benefits:

• Participating in the decision-making process of Juventus by voting on polls published by the club (users don’t have to spend any tokens, they only need to hold JUV)
• Receiving rewards in exchange for active participation in contests and quizzes
• Access to exclusive groups and forums to chat with fellow JUV holders
• The ability to gain cashback rewards, bonuses, and additional benefits as well as win exclusive prizes (e.g., match tickets) by holding a certain number of fan tokens

According to Socios, the fan engagement platform will introduce new features in the near future, which will allow JUV holders to:

• Spend fan tokens to buy VIP products and services
• Earn reward points for active engagement and poll participation
• Stake JUV to receive NFT rewards

Now, let’s check what happened to the price of the Juventus Fan Token since its launch.

Unlike most cryptocurrencies, JUV started to surge soon after its FTO. As a result, the fan token achieved a 412% ROI in 2020.

In 2021, the digital asset continued to reach new highs, increasing its value to $26.22 before entering into a price correction due to the crypto market crash in May. While it made the token fall to as low as $7.05 on June 22, it started to recover its losses since then.

And now, it’s currently trading at $12.39 (August 5).

JUV: the Ultimate Fan Token for Juventus Fans

As the first football club to issue a fan token on Socios and Chiliz, it’s safe to conclude that Juventus has had a quite pleasant and successful journey in the cryptocurrency world so far.

In addition to a 422% ROI since its launch, JUV is currently the fifth-largest fan token out there, featuring a market cap of over $27 million and a 24-hour trading volume of nearly $3.6 million.

Juventus is only one of the many European football clubs that have joined Socios’ fan token movement that includes prominent clubs and partners like Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), Barcelona, Manchester City, the UFC, the Philadelphia 76ers, and Alfa Romeo Racing.

And this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Fan tokens like JUV offer real value to both holders and the clubs that issued them.

On the one hand, it empowers fans with voting rights and real influence over the decisions of their favorite teams, along with access to exclusive rewards and benefits.

From the clubs’ perspective, they can increase their fans’ engagement and gain valuable insights without the risk of their rivals (and their followers) sabotaging the polls to generate unwanted results.

At the same time, issuing fan tokens offers team access to an extra source of funds, which has the potential to become an alternative revenue model in sports in the future.

Regarding the cryptocurrency industry, club-issued coins connect digital assets with millions of sports fans, showcasing how they can reap the benefits of decentralized technology.

As prominent and widely popular clubs like Juventus have joined Socios — and their numbers are growing quickly –, it will be interesting to see how far fan tokens can go in terms of adoption and whether they can bring the large masses of sports fans to the crypto world.

Originally published at https://academy.aaxspace.com on August 5, 2021.