Web3 on the World Stage ⚽️

Hey y’all - we want to thank you again for helping us grow Web3 for the Culture over the past year❤️. We’ll be taking a break over the next two weeks for the holidays and will be back with fresh content in early Jan! Until then, enjoy this latest newsletter and happy holidays!

This past Sunday, the entire world witnessed history. The match-up between France and Argentina for the World Cup Final felt like a 120+ minute rollercoaster ride–full of ups and downs, no matter which team you were cheering for. The emotions, the talent, the resiliency were all put on display, making this arguably the most riveting World Cup final the world has ever seen. 

In the 2018 World Cup Final, 3.5 billion viewers from across the globe tuned in to watch the matchup, so it makes sense that as the most-watched sports event in the world, businesses all over would be vying to get in front of this global audience. 

For the 2022 World Cup, there were over 5 billion people who tuned in to the tournament. In the quest to mass adoption, web3 companies took this opportunity to connect with over half of the world’s population and ran with it. This week, we’re taking a look at how web3 showed up throughout the World Cup and what this means for the future of sports. Consider this Web3 🤝 Sports Industry 2.0.   

How Web3 showed up in the World Cup 

While Web3 may not have been too too in your face during the world cup like a Nike Swoosh on a uniform or a TV ad during a commercial, it was definitely making a statement at the world cup in a few ways:

Official Blockchain Partnership: Algorand, a Proof of Stake blockchain protocol, became FIFA’s official blockchain partner (yes, it’s a thing!), helping launch its first marketplace, FIFA+ Collect, for digital collectibles of the men’s and women’s tournament

Sponsorship: this one was expected but companies like crypto.com signed large sponsorship contracts with FIFA for the tournament

Gaming: through a contract with Roblox, football fans were given free-to-play access to FIFA World, an online space to hang out in social spaces, earn rewards and collect exclusive virtual items through skill games and multiple collectors’ challenges

Metaverse(s): there were a few notable metaverses that spectators could engage with over the world cup. The first was Budverse by Budweiser where those who were old enough to drink could hold a tracker-NFT that kept up with an NFT holder’s chosen country’s team throughout the tournament. The other was Africa Village, a six-day in-person and online festival featuring live music, lounges, and the selling of NFTs

NFTs: and naturally, with collections already on sale through SoRare and more, NFTs were live and abundant throughout the tournament. 

Let’s talk about that a little more…

Fan tokens are the future. 

We all know that there are levels to this sports fan life. You have people like Kendall who love big games such as the Superbowl, World Cup, and March Madness, but don’t necessarily have any loyalty to a particular team. Then you have people like her sister who was a D1 college soccer player and quite literally would cry every time the Washington Commanders lost. One watches for vibes and the occasional thrill, while the other is seriously invested.

Now that leads to our next point… Have you ever heard of Chiliz? 

No, not the restaurant chain, but another kind of chain… a blockchain! (yes, we know that was corny LOL)

Chiliz considers themselves to be the world’s leading blockchain fintech provider for sports & entertainment. According to their website, they developed the Socios.com sports fan engagement platform which is built on the Chiliz blockchain infrastructure & uses $CHZ as its exclusive on-platform currency. What does that mean? Well, fans can now connect with their favorite sports club, team, or brand through the use of fan tokens.  

These fan tokens allow holders to participate in polls to choose kit designs, jersey numbers, celebration songs, or motivational messages. Voters can also enter draws to win official merchandise, VIP access, tickets, exclusive deals, and more. Imagine if you held tokens for the Argentina team and had the chance to help design their jerseys for the World Cup game – super dope, right? Think about these tokens as an access pass to intimately connecting with the teams you love the most.

This isn’t just a theoretical project either. It’s seen adoption from major football (re: soccer, @Americans) giants including FC Barcelona, ​​​​Atlético de Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, Manchester City, Juventus, AC Milan, Flamengo, and River Plate, who have all launched fan tokens. Football clubs from Argentina, Italy, and Portugal have also taken advantage of this innovation as a way to build better connectivity with fans.

How Web3 esports will become a tool for mass adoption

It’s widely believed that gaming will be a key entry point for the mass adoption of cryptocurrency. But for the people who’s gaming right now is limited to 2048 or Wordle like Chad and Kendall, you might think this doesn’t apply to you. But rest assured, the Web3 gaming market will be huge. And here are a few reasons why:

A whole lotta people game: did you know that roughly 3.2B people will play games in some shape or form this year? That’s a LOT of people. And whether you’re playing 2K professionally or love some candy crush on your Subway ride, there’s some love of playing the game and a community behind it so you’re never really alone

Nothing really changes: Web3 games might sound intimidating, but honestly the actual fun of playing the game doesn’t change. So you can keep playing as usual with a key difference of…

Owning your gaming assets: getting those nice little accolades when we play video games is cool and all, but right now you can’t do anything with them - it stays in the game. Web3 changes that. Now you can take your in-game assets and trade them on a secondary market. So now they have a tracked value outside of games, and you might even be able to use assets from one game in another (one day in the future at least!). 

In 2021 we saw over 1M digital wallets connect to decentralized (read: blockchain) gaming apps! Though impressive, that number is small and growing when we think about all the gamers out there!

Final Thoughts

Good news for all our North American readers - the 2026 World Cup will be on our stomping grounds with games being played in cities all across the continent. While this World Cup helped cement Messi’s legacy as the GOAT of soccer, we’re bound to see new young stars shine even brighter in 2026! And by then, who knows where blockchain and web3 will take us. If this World Cup taught us anything though, we’ll definitely see more use cases in the coming years!

Until then, happy holidays! 🌲