Chiliz is based on the vision that the future of sports monetization will rely on the transformation of “passive” fans to “active” fans. In other words, fans will be more involved in the operations of their teams instead of simply being spectators.
What if you could choose the starting lineup of your favorite football team? Or the design of a special edition jersey? This is the type of involvement that Chiliz hopes to empower through its partner website, Socios.com, and it is what the team calls “crowd management.”
Fans can buy Chiliz (CHZ), the native cryptocurrency of its blockchain, and trade it on the Chiliz Exchange for Socios.com’s Fan Tokens, which grant holders votes in team polls and exclusive perks. Depending on the number of Fan Tokens a user has, different experiences or privileges are offered to them.
CHZ is the primary unit of exchange in the Chiliz ecosystem and allows for access to Fan Tokens.
CHILIZ ESSENTIALS
- Chiliz is a blockchain-based platform which, through its partner Socios.com app, allows sports fans to engage with their favorite teams in meaningful ways—transforming passive spectators into active participants.
- By exchanging the Chiliz token (CHZ) for Fan Tokens on the Chiliz Exchange or the Socios.com app, users can vote in polls to have a voice in decisions made by their teams and have access to special experiences and VIP rewards.
- The Socios.com app offers multiple crypto-backed opportunities for users to participate on the platform, including earning Badges, predicting the outcome of games, and even playing an AR-based geolocation game.
How was Chiliz developed?
Chiliz was founded in 2018 as a part of the Malta-based Mediarex Enterprises, a fintech and sports entertainment company. The first Fan Tokens on its partner website Socios.com were issued for the Italian football team Juventus in 2019.
Since its inception, some important landmarks include:
- Early 2020: FC Barcelona announced the launch of its Fan Tokens, opening the platform to over 300 million fans of the club across the globe.
- Early 2021: AC Milan listed its Fan Tokens and generated $6 million in revenue over the course of only a few hours.
- Mid-Late 2021: Socios.com partnered with a number of NBA teams, the first of which was the Philadelphia 76ers.
- Late 2021: A partnership with the first NFL team, The New England Patriots, was announced.
Alexandre Dreyfus leads the Chiliz team as its CEO. Born in France, Dreyfus has been a serial entrepreneur since 1995, with over a decade of experience in sports betting and online poker prior to selling his company in 2012. He continued with various projects and investments until he co-founded Chiliz.
Chiliz is backed by funding and support from various sources in the crypto industry, including Binance, Jump Trading, and the consulting arm of OKex. The company raised $65 million through private placement sales of its tokens.
How does Chiliz work?
Sports enthusiasts who want to participate in the ecosystem must first buy CHZ directly from the Socios.com app or from an exchange like Bitstamp. CHZ can then easily be exchanged for Fan Tokens on the Chiliz Exchange or the Socios.com app.
Fan Tokens are digital assets that exist on the Ethereum blockchain. When a sports team (or club) decides to issue a Fan Token Offering (FTO) to distribute their Fan Tokens, they define a set number of tokens which can be held and traded by their fan bases.
The franchises can then announce opportunities for fans who own Fan Tokens, including promotions, rewards, and perks. They can also hold polls in which users can vote—using their Fan Tokens—on decisions that will affect the team, such as the design on a team’s tour bus or pre-game warm-up music. In this way, Chiliz and Socios.com empower “fans as influencers.”
Platform features
- Badges – Users can unlock achievements by participating in the app, ultimately winning experience points (XP) and leveling up their profiles. Leveling up allows users to earn Socios United (SSU) tokens that can be exchanged for Socios.com merchandise and other rewards.
- Token Hunt – Augmented reality (AR) game based on geolocation, akin to Pokémon Go, in which players can walk around their neighborhood and find their favorite teams’ Fan Tokens.
- Predictor – Fans can bet on the outcomes of games and matches by locking up Fan Tokens. If they are correct, they win XP and climb the leaderboards.
- Locker Room – Fans can lock CHZ for 120 days on Socios.com in support of a specific team who does not yet have its own Fan Token. If the team chooses to partner with Socios.com during that time, those fans will have first access to its Fan Tokens and also earn a bonus. If not, the fans receiveget theirs CHZ back without penalty.
Consensus mechanism
Chiliz uses the Proof of Authority (PoA) consensus mechanism in order to process transactions and maintain its blockchain.
PoA is a form of Proof of Stake (PoS), which means each validator node must put up a “stake” to process transactions on the network and add blocks to the blockchain. They are then able to collect a portion of the network fees as rewards. However, instead of staking, or locking, a cryptocurrency, PoA nodes stake their identity. This incentivizes nodes to behave in the best interest of the network, or else suffer from a negative reputation and lose their transaction processing privilege.
How is the CHZ token used?
CHZ exists as both an ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockchain and a BEP2 token on the Binance Chain and is primarily used as a method of accessing Fan Tokens. On the Chiliz Exchange, trading pairs of CHZ and the various available Fan Tokens allow users to easily swap between the two types of crypto assets. In this way, the CHZ token ensures deep liquidity on the platform.
Token distribution
There is a total supply of 8,888,888,888 (almost 9 billion) CHZ tokens that will ever be created. A relatively large share of CHZ tokens were reserved for “private placement” – in other words, sold to private investors or businesses – as well as allocations to the team, seed investors, and advisory board. Together, this initial portion of distributed CHZ accounts for 50% of all tokens created. Otherwise, 20% of CHZ were assigned to the userbase reserve, 15% are reserved for strategic acquisitions, and 15% were allocated to marketing operations.
How to buy CHZ
You can buy the Chiliz coin on Bitstamp. Sign up for a Bitstamp account and start trading CHZ today!
Disclosure: Bitstamp is licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
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