Category Archives: Uncategorized

Monday, 3 October 0 September 2022, Johannesburg, Zug

South African Hockey Association signs a long term partnership with BLOCKSPORT AG, a leading Swiss sports tech solutions provider, to create the full digital ecosystem with the launch Fan Engagement App, followed by Fan Token and NFTs as World’s first hockey association to fully embrace the power of blockchain technology and tokenization for the benefit of the South African hockey and South African sport as a whole. This is the world’s first when it comes down to the entire digital ecosystem as many other sports federations have opted for a silo effect by signing up with multiple partners in a way that does not connect the dots.   

By signing this long term partnership, SAHA has positioned itself as the first national hockey association in the world to fully embrace the power of blockchain technology, digitalisation, and tokenization. The partnership aims to develop new digital ways for fans to be more involved with the national team starting with the launch of a new interactive app for fans which will see engagement and digitalization go beyond the borders of South Africa and the African continent. It will be followed by the launch and release of SAHA’s NFTs, as well the national team’s own Fan Tokens which will be utility based, hence totally non speculative. 

While trading fan tokens might be great, Blocksport brings something a little different to the table. It is currently the only company that offers non-speculative utility fan tokens, specifically designed to drive real fan engagement. Several top-tier clubs and federations are leveraging these tokens to create digital memberships that give fans exclusive perks depending on their membership level. Fans get real value and engagement based on their level, while teams get to build loyalty and cash in on new revenue streams.

Shaune Baaitjies, CEO of South African Hockey Association, said;

“The South African Hockey Association is honoured to have teamed up with Blocksport and we are all excited about the start of this partnership. We are keen to get this new digital fan engagement experience right and help to drive South African Hockey forward. Being one of the pioneers in Africa makes us proud and humbled that we recognised this potential which the whole world is talking about and I am looking forward to the bright future ahead!”

Samir Ceric, Chief Operating Officer of Blocksport said:

“As a father of three young children aged 9, 11 and 13, two of whom already on the England Player Pathway with the aspirations to play for TeamGB at the Olympics one day, and the third one who started his hockey development only last Sunday with his first tournament which they won, this partnership carries a personal importance to me. Hockey is one of these sports that is incredibly exciting to watch and is played at a huge speed, not dissimilar to handball which I played at a very high level as a junior, and ended up winning the England National Championships as a senior, in the late 90s. It is the sport that is currently undergoing a major positive transformation and an influx of investment in order for it to become both more popular and also more commercially viable with the likes of Nike coming into it and sponsoring a number of Ivy League college hockey teams. 

I am very excited about the fact that SAHA has recognised the power of blockchain technology and what it has to offer and has teamed up with us at Blocksport in order to open up new revenue opportunities for their Association as well as further improve fan engagement and offer more value to their existing and future sponsors and partners. I am looking forward to working alongside the team at SAHA driven by the Marketing and Sponsorship Executive Haydn Townsend supported by  its CEO Shaune Baaitjies, both who has clearly recognised the potential and opportunity here and of course, Rebecca Eliot without whom none of this would have been possible.” 

Rebecca Eliot, ProTouch Africa – Blocksport Representative in Africa, said;

“More than one year ago, we set out on a journey with the South African Hockey Association to transform the way fans engage with its teams and players. Like all personalised digital experiences, the new fan engagement platform will be driven by data. Combining data from the game with insights from the fans will allow us to build engaging content and deliver experiences for SA Hockey fans, locally and abroad, and drive new revenues for the sport to further enable our top performing athletes – something that I am very passionate about”.

About SAHA

South African Hockey Association (SAHA) is the National Sports Association that manages Hockey in South Africa. It is affiliated to the African Hockey Federation, the FIH (International Hockey Federation) as well as the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC). SAHA is responsible for the administration, development, and co-ordination of all Hockey activities within South Africa.

For many years stadium or broadcasts was the only place where fans met their beloved clubs and teams, the relationship was built on that basis and it was changing through the years as more engagement between fans and brands occurred and now it came to a new era of web3 as an absolutely unique space of interaction. The technological abilities of blockchain changed the game with different products and fan tokens are one of the most valuable and promising assets. They offer unique and exclusive options in fan engagement and can change the relationship between fans and brands forever. But how fan tokens appeared?

A couple of years ago the hype around fan tokens appeared with PSG and Juventus fan token launches which attracted the attention of media and fans all over the world. First fan tokens were introduced and now after some time and with dozens of new launches by different blockchains and crypto providers we definitely see some concerns about those assets. Why? Because of their volatility – many providers don’t offer any control on the price and fan tokens are used not to engage with fans but as a speculative asset in hands of crypto traders who pump and dump to benefit like from every other coin and that creates danger for the fans of clubs and federations as well as the risk of buying fan tokens and losing all you money when traders dump the money is very high. Also, the bad thing is that it is hard to predict the behavior of tokens as the Atletico Madrid fan token was dumped just after their triumph in a domestic league. How it can be avoided?

The reason that fan tokens appear in the hands of speculative traders is the listing, when a token is listed on an exchange the price is not under control anymore hence those who hold most of the tokens dictate the price. In Blocksport we avoid this situation as our token is not listed from day one and operates as a stable coin so the price is controlled by the brand and not speculative traders, the main holders are fans because they can purchase the tokens and hold most of them. That is fundamental for building relationships and trust based on fan tokens.

When fans understand that there is no risk in holding fan tokens comes fan engagement. We propose to use a level system where fans get different levels of influence and benefits depending on the number of tokens they bought and it opens up absolutely new perspectives to the fans as they can meet their favorite players, experience the VIP hospitality at the matches, earn digital benefits like special videos from players and coaches, unique NFTs and other collectibles as well as real collectibles like signed jerseys, balls, etc. Regarding the influence, options can be various as well from selecting the player of the month, or the next season’s slogan up to selecting the colors of the away kit. 

Fan tokens are built to break the barriers between clubs and fans and not to be a speculative asset, that’s the vision we prove at Blocksport among our respected partners who already launched the fan tokens and on the one hand, opened new revenue streams and on the other give their fans an experience they never had before. 

NFT is one of the most hyped blockchain terms. Many people heard about it in the news about digital arts and famous artists, and some celebrities released their own NFTs to promote their brands. There is a lot of hype and buzz around this word, which means non-fungible token but not many people understand that NFTs go way beyond the tokenized video or image. Anything can be tokenized in NFT making it unique, in sports, we saw significant use cases with fantasy sports, for example, and there are a lot of opportunities for sports brands to use NFT. 

First of all, it is of course selling the unique moments from clubs or athletes’ history – it is great to have a one, unique and verified copy of the decisive shot in basketball, a winning goal in football, and the first footage of your favorite club game. Secondly, it is producing some special NFTs and the utility behind them. We like to combine those approaches to show fans that NFT is not only a video, picture, or any other visual asset, but a unique thing from their club and the ‘money can’t buy experience’ which is even more important. It is a thing where you can present everything and the proof of ownership is unique. 

How it can be presented – through bringing value to the fans, for example, our NFT collection for Ukrainian National Team and Empoli FC was a charity collection, and all funds were transferred to UNITED 24 organization for humanitarian needs. Here fans saw the value to help people and all NFTs were sold out in just a week. In other more traditional ways utility of the NFT can be different, for example, buying the digital photo with an autograph of your favorite player you can also receive a physical copy of your NFT with the real autograph – one and only, because only your own this NFT which makes it unique. 

Another way to utilize NFT is to provide digital value, for example, you buy an NFT with a historic goal of your favorite player, and with this NFT you receive a special video that is available only for you where this player describes to you personally what he felt about this moment. This is something special because you won’t find this video in media or on clubs’ Youtube channels – this is only for you, and that is what makes it special. In our vision NFT are not about the hype, but about providing new ways to engage with fans and provide them with something unique and individual, because every fan dreams about being a part of the club and understanding that he can have something unique. 

This summer was “scorching” for Blocksport as lots of things happened, even though it is usually not an active period both in the world of sports and business. 

We sit down to talk with Vladimir Liulka, CEO and Co-Founder of Blocksport, about all that happened during the summer and his plans for this autumn. 

What comes first to mind when thinking about Blocksport’s achievements this summer? 

The first thing that comes to my mind is the fan token launches for our partners Partizan BC and Empoli FC – clubs that play in major domestic and European competitions. However, I think the story of this project goes even further than one token launch, considering the history of both clubs and their fan bases. 

The second is signing new partners, and I can say that recently we have entered the field of leagues and federations, which is very good for Blocksport.

It is worth saying; that we should keep in mind the development of our platform. Blocksport 2.0 will be introduced this autumn as we are in the final stages, and it will be even more user-friendly and gamified. 

Let’s talk more about fan token launches for Partizan and Empoli – can you share some insights on those projects?

Sure, Empoli launched its fan token first at the end of June, presenting many exciting features to its fans like birthday videos for players, exclusive VIP tickets, and digital assets. However, we already see how this project influences the Azzuri fan base as clubs as the first fan token holders received VIP tickets at the most crucial game for Empoli fans – the Tuscany derby and enjoyed the game experience like never before. 

As for the Partizan, this project is massive for the club and us, black-whites offer unique opportunities like meeting a player personally, and they are already aiming for more, launching new tranches of fan tokens ahead of their Euroleague matches as they are back to the main European basketball competition. Speaking about Partizan, I can also mention their perfect start with the fan app – they launched it in April and already have more than 10,000 downloads.

Sounds exciting, and what about the new partners of Blocksport? You mentioned that Blocksport signed a partnership with the first federations and league. Could you tell us more about it? 

Of course, I am thrilled to announce our partnerships with Bulgarian Football Union and EFBET Liga, the top football league in Bulgaria. It is a significant step for both sides as BFU will receive a branded fan app soon and launch its token. We also continue to grow in the African market. This month we will announce two big players – the rugby federation, which is likely to play at the World Cup and one of the biggest football clubs in Africa with 2 million followers on Twitter only. So we continue to grow and bring our digital ecosystem to the best sports entities. 

What are the plans for this autumn for Blocksport? What are the main goals and challenges? 

As we have launched a few new products, we aim to spread the word about Blocksport worldwide. We will attend three major events in blockchain and sports business this autumn. We will start with CV Summit next week in Zug and continue in Monaco at the SPORTEL conference with the presence of our COO Samir Ceric and me. Also, with a presentation on the 25th of October and finish in Tel Aviv, where two of us will take the main stage and participate in a panel at Sports Tech Nation.

Regarding the product, we will launch the fan apps this autumn for Dynamo Kyiv, BFU, and our new partners from South Africa. We will also release a new version of our platform Blocksport 2.0 to improve the web experience and introduce new features. Regarding the fan token launches – more are coming soon. So stay tuned, and let’s make great things happen!

7th September 2022, Nairobi, Zug 

Kenya Rugby Union has signed a 5-year partnership BLOCKSPORT AG, a leading  Swiss sports tech solutions provider, to create the full digital ecosystem with the launch Fan Engagement App, Fan Token and NFTs as World’s first rugby union to fully embrace the power of blockchain technology and tokenization for the benefit of  the Kenyan rugby and Kenyan sport as a whole. This is the world’s first when it comes down to the entire digital ecosystem as many rugby and other sports unions have opted for a silo effect by signing up with multiple partners in a way that does not connect the dots.  

By signing this 5-year partnership, KRU has positioned itself as the first rugby federation in the world to fully embrace the power of blockchain technology,  digitalisation, and tokenization. The partnership aims to develop new digital ways for  fans to be more involved with the national team starting with the launch of a new  interactive app for fans which will see engagement and digitalization go beyond the borders of Kenya and the African continent. It will be followed by the launch  and release of KRU’s NFTs, as well the national team’s own Fan Tokens which will be  utility based, hence totally non speculative. The Kenya national rugby union Sevens  Men team popularly known as the Shujaa have played at the past five Rugby  Sevens World Cups, reaching the semi-finals in 2009 and 2013, and are one of the  core teams competing in every tournament of the annual World Sevens Series. Just  last week, the Lionesses put up a spirited fight in the World Sevens Challenger  Tournament in Chile emerging fourth and continuing to win many global fans for  their scintillating display. The Simbas (Men’s Fifteen-a-side) were runner-up in the  Rugby Africa Cup and are now preparing for the Final Qualification Tournament for 

next year’s Rugby World Cup in France. Early this year, the Simbas made their debut  appearance at the Currie Cup First Division competition in South Africa, one of the  oldest and most prestigious rugby tournaments in the world. These teams have won  many global fans with their exceptional displays despite limited resources. This  partnership opens new platforms for the global fan base that the Kenyan national  teams have attracted to consistently engage with the teams and players while  allowing the KRU to fully exploit emerging commercial opportunities for the benefit  of the game.  

While trading fan tokens might be great, Blocksport brings something a little different  to the table. It is currently the only company that offers non-speculative utility fan  tokens, specifically designed to drive real fan engagement. Several top-tier clubs and unions are leveraging these tokens to create digital memberships that give fans  exclusive perks depending on their membership level. Fans get real value and  engagement based on their level, while teams get to build loyalty and cash in on  new revenue streams. 

Oduor Gangla, Chairman of the Kenya Rugby Union, said; 

“I am honoured and proud with the fact the Kenya Rugby Union will be the first  rugby federation in the world with a fully completed digital ecosystem which will not  only benefit our national teams but our club rugby fans too. You often read in the  press how American, Asian, English, German sports leagues and federations go  ahead of the curve in this space and announce commercial arrangements that  further benefit their already well run and funded sports infrastructure. However I feel  this is a turnaround for this part of the world, which has historically been full of  potential and talent, The KRU has recognised this potential and is prepared to open  up new frontiers in the digital space which in return will make us stand out from the  crowd and attract investment not only into our rugby industry but our athletes too. I  would like to thank my team for working relentlessly over the past few months and  bringing this solution based out of Switzerland and the world’s most regulated and  transparent crypto valley, Zug, to our attention. I very much look forward to the next  steps and the journey ahead.” We are humbled and grateful that Blocksport has  agreed to work with the KRU in this transformative project. 

Samir Ceric, Chief Operating Officer of Blocksport said: 

“I am very excited about the fact that we are breaking into the African sports  market with such an African rugby heavyweight, the Kenya Rugby Union. From the  moment I met the KRU team and its Chairman Mr Oduor Gangla, it was evident to  me that they understood the true potential blockchain technology brings to the  table. They also recognised the fact that Blocksport was a different kind of sports 

tech company, a company that understood the sport in a different way to other  industry players. I can safely say that it is great to be talking the same language, i.e. us at Blocksport and our new partner, KRU. As a former Chairman of a football club, I  often talk about the importance of one’s fan base and how much more fans today  expect of their beloved clubs and national teams in all major professional sports and  it is great to meet like-minded individuals operating and managing globally  successful rugby teams such as the Simbas, Shujaa, Lionesses and Chipu. We are  looking forward to many more successful partnerships in Africa and are thrilled with  the partner we are starting our African journey with. And what a great timing to do 

so, with a serious chance of the Simbas competing at the next Rugby World Cup in  France as well as the Shujaa participating in this year’s Rugby 7s World Cup in Cape  Town, South Africa. ”  

The Future Is Now: Generation Y and Z are the new faces of fandom. Understanding  their needs and tailoring one’s brand for the digital realm presents new opportunities  for engagement. It is the key to making them feel more connected to one’s club,  national team and the chosen sport. When fans are happy, it is also a victory for the  club or national team they support. Blockchain gives sports clubs, leagues and  football and other sports associations the chance to do just that. 

Ngárua Kamuya, Chief Executive Officer of 270 Degrees Sports said: 

At the crux of every sporting organization is its fanbase. It is the fan who buys the  tickets to watch the games, it is the fan who buys your merchandise, it is the fan who  invest in the organization. From the inception of our relationship with Kenya Rugby Union, it has been apparent that they have wanted to commercialise their assets,  and they have realized that the way to do this is putting the fan at the centre. This  partnership with Blocksport is timely and natural, in my opinion. Building a fan  engagement app for a Union that has a global fanbase is incredible, and we look  forward to this partnership. We want to thank Lindi Ngwenya and Charles Cardovillis, 

together with the teams at Kenya Rugby Union and Blocksport for making this a  reality. The next 5 years will definitely be an exciting time for Kenya Rugby. 

About Kenya Rugby Union 

Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) is the governing body for rugby union in Kenya. It was  founded in 1970 and is affiliated to Rugby Africa and the international governing  body World Rugby. KRU is responsible for the running of the Kenya national rugby  union teams (Lionesses, Shujaa, Chipu and Simbas), domestic club’s competitions and school rugby competitions. The union’s current residence is at the RFUEA  Grounds in Nairobi, Kenya. KRU currently comprises of 3 leagues, the Kenya Cup, the  Championship and the Nationwide. The KRU also hosts the prestigious international  invitiatonal tournament, the Safari Sevens.  

When we present Blocksport as a company that can help any sports entity with fan engagement, we mean that. Because in our portfolio we don’t have only clubs and organizations from football, basketball, and other major sports but rugby, esports, volleyball, and cycling as well. Today we want to tell you the story of the Belgian Cycling app made for the Belgian Cycling federation to engage with cycling enthusiasts. 

Belgian Cycling was founded in 1882 and is one of the world’s oldest cycling federations with many champions wearing a blue jersey over the years. It is a top competitor throughout the years, presented Belgium in all general competitions, and works to bring international cycling events to Belgium as a leading cycling country in Europe. So when we decided to partner with such an organization, we were sure that it will help to develop both Blocksport and Belgian Cycling as it has a great fan base for this kind of sport and a pure vision of how to work with fans. 

Our idea is to bring simple but engaging solutions for clubs that’s why Belgian Cycling selected our app – we work on a SaaS model that’s why it is affordable for every sports entity to have a fan app and we offer different solutions to engage fans into it and open new revenue streams. Now the app is live for 6 months and offers lots of opportunities for fans – they can speak with each other in fan chat and for now, we have 3000 people who joined the chat to communicate with each other. 

We integrated fan missions and fan ratings so now more than 50% of our users complete fan missions and earn their place in fan ratings. Regarding the exclusive features for a cycling app – the radio tour was new for us, but very important for a cycling app as you can have a live broadcast of what’s going on throughout the race. We also have social media integrated here and partner with merchandise stores directly in the app. And our general achievement is of course 3500 users just for half a year. 

In the future, we plan to develop the Belgian Cycling digital ecosystem together with the federation to engage more fans and even more interesting fans and bring them an exclusive fan experience. This case study is an example of how Blocksport’s digital ecosystem can be implemented in every kind of sport and work for both sports entities and fans as a win-win situation. 

In 2022 many people have already heard about NFTs, hype on some art and unexpectedly expensive sales of some digital artists attracted much attention to the topic. But how NFTs can be used in sports and in tokenization and digitalization processes? We believe in utility NFTs when you don’t just purchase art or just a picture or video, it’s about things that stay behind the asset itself. When we noticed that our partner club Empoli will play a friendly against the national team of Ukraine just in a couple of days we decided to make an NFT collection and executed it to bring a very important utility for all people who will buy those NFTs. 

We decided to take 10 photos from this match add some design to them and mint them as NFTs. We promoted it only with media releases in important Ukrainian sports media and on the social media channels of Empoli, the Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF), and Blocksport. The main idea was to raise awareness of the problem of war in Ukraine and to raise funds for the Ukrainian international charity foundation UNITED 24 backed by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.

The starting price of each NFT was around 30$ in BNB and we started auctions just a day after the match not to lose momentum around the event. In a couple of hours first bids were placed and we saw that we attracted some attention as there was a demand for pictures, we also partnered with UNITED 24 so they put some social media posts about our collection. On the next day, every NFT had a bid, so we understood that it is going to be sold out here. All NFTs were sold in a week and we transferred all funds to to the UNITED 24 wallet for the medical needs of the Ukrainian people. 

We launched a small campaign without paid advertising and spent resources only on producing and minting NFTs and promotion across the media as it was a charity collection and the results speak for themselves, in fact, we raised a small sum of money to help people out of nothing. Just trying to do the right things – the most important thing is we grab momentum and gave a real utility for buying those NFTs. That’s what we always tell about the NFTs in sports – provide the utility and make your collection special, give it a story and a project will be successful. We are sure every sports brand has a lot of stories to tell and what to provide to their fans both digitally and physically, that’s why NFT can make a good addition to digitalization and tokenization in sports. 

For how long have you been an Empoli fan?

Living a few kilometers from Empoli I have always been a fan and have always followed Empoli even in the Serie B years. 

Why you have decided to buy fan tokens?

I decided to buy the fan tokens because I wanted to try to have the opportunity to participate in the various extractions and to be closer to the team.  Luck was immediately on my side and I was drawn for the two Vip Hospitality tickets for the Tuscan derby between Empoli and Fiorentina.  

What was your experience during the match? 

It was a wonderful experience, we were very well received and were allowed to see the arrival of the coaches and the entrance of the players to the stadium.  Then we were made to visit the stadium by going to the sidelines and the press room where the pre and post match interviews are done.  Then we were offered a rich buffet before the match and during the first and second half.  Then the seat was very close to the authority stand, I would say truly spectacular.  I know it won’t be easy but I hope to have an experience like this again. It’s a different way to experience a football match.  

Are you going to continue using fan tokens? 

As for the token fans, I will continue to use them and still hope for luck. I close by thanking you for the chance you gave me and for the experience you gave me.  Thank you very much.

When we speak about digitalization and tokenization in sports – we always think about big clubs and brands, that launch millions of fan tokens, enter the metaverse, and do other enormous projects. But how can those tools help small sports brands right here and right now? How a club with a small and local fan base can digitalize the experience of fans and what is also important how can it open up a new revenue stream?

At Blocksport, we believe that the only thing that matters is the passion of your fan base, not the size, not the name, not the sports, not the league you play but passion and affinity for the brand. We know how to help small brands open up new revenue streams in the digital world, and how to help their passionate and loyal fans to experience a new level of connection and engagement with their beloved brand.

Red Star Belgrade Rugby League Club was one of the first partners of Blocksport in the traditional sports field. However, the name of the Red Star sports society is big in the Balkans and well-known in Europe. Rugby is far from the title of number one sport in Serbia and Red Star football and basketball teams are much more popular than their rugby counterpart, carrying the same world-famous name. But the important thing is the passion of this relatively small fan base of around 1000 people about rugby and Red Star.. They play on old fields, players have full-time jobs, and there is no VIP experience, but there are enthusiastic people behind the club.

We started our partnership with the launch of a mobile app on the SaaS model which is a good option for small clubs as they don’t have to spend thousands of dollars for development; instead just pay a monthly fee and receive a branded app inside a month. So here we started our journey with the Red Star fan app introducing gamification features and other options such as merchandise sales and live streaming. Since the beginning, the app was installed 1800 times, considering the active fan base of the club is around 1000.

The next step was the NFT launch when we introduced our native platform and released NFTs with Red Star players both on the platform and in-app. We sold 3 Red Star NFTs with promotion only on Red Star social media and in our community not spending a dollar on a paid promo. The NFT is a bonus for every club as it can be used as unique digital merchandise and the same vision we expressed with the Red Star club. 

As our digital ecosystem presents 3 interconnected products: fan app, NFTs, and fan tokens. The last but not the least step was waiting ahead, as we mentioned many times before fan tokens are a revolutionary product that brings the connection between fans and clubs to a new level. Red Star fan token launch was the first one for Blocksport and also a debut for our partners from Serbia, regarding the size of a fan base we decided to launch the first tranche of 10 000 $RSB tokens with a price of 1 euro for 1 $RSB. Red Star offered some unique features for holders like unique content, Q&A with players, and discounts from clubs and partners. We launched a promotion on the Red Star app and social media, in rugby digital media, and on Blocksport social media channels. For less than a month we sold out the first 10000 tokens and received 10 000 euros just for providing some digital extras for their fans. On average every fan bought 145 tokens. That’s what Colin Kleyweg, CEO of Red Star Belgrade RLC said about this experience:

“I am proud of what has happened with the first tranche of RLK fan tokens. We are getting a wide cross-section of members purchasing stakes in the token. Given we are the first rugby club in the world to successfully launch a token, I think we also need to applaud the bravery of our partnership with Blocksport and the bravery of our fans in purchasing something so new. The job has just begun – our fan membership token is a way to develop a further conversation on our app and bring our members closer to the coalface of running a rugby league club and expanding the sport in a holistic, domestic competition structure in the Balkans.”

Now we are planning to launch the second tranche of fan tokens as the first success was a great addition to a club that always needs additional funds to pay more to the players, to play on better fields, and attract more people to become rugby and Red Star fans. That’s the idea of Blocksport if you have even 1000 people who are passionate and enthusiastic about your club then we have to work to help you find new possibilities using the unique digital ecosystem. Digitalization and tokenization are for every sports brand that has fans and their passion behind it. That’s what we believe in and that’s what we can confidently prove to anyone out there who is considering their own steps in the digital realm arena.

05 July 2022, London, Budapest, Zug 

Blocksport, a leading SportsTech solutions provider, and Seyu, a real-time moderated, branded, fan-generated content delivery solution are forging a strategic partnership. The alliance is aiming to help sports industry’s rights holders best embrace market leading sports technologies in order to improve their fan engagement and data collection while creating new revenue sources.

Leading by best practices and evolving fan-engagement digitalization hand in hand with clubs are the objectives that both companies live by. This exciting, new partnership is designed to strengthen the core network of half a dozen sport tech businesses determined to make a mark on the industry across the globe. Each company demonstrates that transparency, knowledge and the right approach are the most important things when engaging with global fan bases. Fan bases that are on a global scale come from different backgrounds and cultures but united in the love for football and sport clubs that they passionately support. Sport is a lot more than a game and fandom for many is a way of life, a philosophy, even a new religion. Thanks to technology, these emotions can now be unearthed and channeled into the stadiums and arenas from anywhere in the world. 

Samir Ceric, the Chief Operation Officer of Blocksport AG, said:

“I am thrilled with the fact that this week Seyu and Blocksport have officially joined forces in this exciting strategic partnership announcement. Having personally known Seyu’s founder and CEO, Tom Vechy Vecsernyes, for some time now, having brought him to the football club I used to be a Chairman of, and also introduced to some other sports clubs across Europe. I saw first-hand how unique and powerful Seyu’s solution can be, and how it is aligned with the interest of the club as well as our own vision behind Blocksport. I am very exciting with the fact that we will continue our long standing collaboration, now as two important strategic partners between Blocksport and Seyu, and help open doors for one another within our existing sport networks, with the aim of helping clubs and other sporting entities generate additional revenues and remain viable and more profitable in the process; and all for the benefit of their biggest asset, their fan base. Improving fan engagement in the process and deepening these important relationships are often mission critical no matter which club or country are concerned. 

Tom Vechy Vecsernyes, Seyu’s Co-Founder and CEO, says:

“Joining forces with talented companies like Blocksport is always a step taken in the right direction on the path of global expansion for Seyu. We strongly believe that together it is much easier to find solutions for challenges that business life or life in general might throw at our team, hence our motto: “Together for Victory!”. Samir Ceric and Blocksport’s involvement in the journey of Seyu, and vice versa, will deliver immense value to both companies’ existing and new partners when creating joint offerings for the market that I am certain of. We are looking forward to our collaboration.”

Seyu was recently awarded as one of the most promising fifteen start-ups in Hungary (in all sectors), representing the sport tech industry on its own. Working with clubs like CD Leganés, SD Ponferradina or brands like Vodafone UK (ESA Award 2021 Top 3), EON and Mercedes-Benz, while Finetwork already landed a chance for the start-up to showcase the power of its solution on the Spanish national team’s match against Kosovo. Amongst many world events Seyu’s solution was favoured by the organizers of events such as UEFA U21 European Championship 2021 and FINA World Championship 2022. Seyu recently became one of the number one solutions which helps clubs not only involve their remote fan base in match days, but to find a new, sustainable revenue source in a financially challenging period as a result of the pandemic.

The Future Is Now: Generation Y and Z are the new faces of fandom. Understanding their needs and tailoring one’s brand for the digital realm presents new opportunities for engagement. It is the key to making them feel more connected to one’s club, national team and the chosen sport. When fans are happy, it is also a victory for the club or national team they support. Blockchain gives sports clubs, leagues and football and other sports associations the chance to do just that.

About Seyu

‘Seyu – Together for Victory!’ is a real-time moderated, branded, fan-generated content provider. Seyu is a technology solution for sports fans that enables them to motivate their favorite teams or athletes from anywhere in the world. The company uses partners’ existing IT infrastructure to allow fans around the world to post images to stadium LEDs and other digital surfaces during sports events through a moderated channel and then instantly share them on social media with media-branded frames. The service, which has been proven to be successful at more than 350 sports events, is one of the leading sports tech services in Hungary, and lovers of international sports are regularly able to enjoy its benefits as well.