Simply put
- Football.Fun is a new on-chain soccer platform combining crypto trading with fantasy sports gameplay.
- The platform’s user base has surged more than tenfold in the last two weeks.
- Users have the option to buy shares of their preferred soccer players from renowned leagues and can profit based on their performance.
The rise in football discussions among crypto traders can largely be attributed to the UK Premier League, along with the sport’s revival in general. Football.Fun creates a novel ecosystem that has yielded considerable revenue for both early users and soccer enthusiasts.
Built on Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer-2 Network, Base allows participants to acquire shares of players like Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappe from leagues such as EPL, La Liga, and Bundesliga, and they earn rewards linked to the athletes’ real-time achievements.
In just a matter of weeks, the platform has experienced massive growth, incorporating elements of fantasy sports with crypto trading, reminiscent of collecting trading cards. The market capitalization of player stocks has fluctuated between $6 million to $65 million since August 12th.
We’ve seen football fandom expressed through other avenues before. For instance, the NFT fantasy game Sorare and fan tokens from leading teams have made strides. Yet, Football.Fun represents the latest attempt to carve out its space. So, how does it all function?
How football works
On this platform, users can trade stocks of elite soccer players from major leagues around the world.
These stocks not only serve as representatives of players in fantasy contests reflecting on-field performance but also behave like crypto tokens. This allows users to speculate on their future value much like they would with popular crypto assets or meme coins.
The speculation has proven lucrative for early adopters, attracting a surge of new users and deposits, which have now reached $17 million. Trading volume soared above $15 million on August 24th.
Users can acquire stocks in various ways. They can purchase them through the open market using a currency backed one-to-one in Gold or the Stablecoin USDC, or they can earn them in biweekly fantasy contests using Tournament Points (TP).
Packs available in the game offer shares of four random soccer players at different price tiers, with the lowest offering 8-14 players and the highest providing 285-535 shares for 2,000 TP.
As stocks are only available through these packs or public markets, each player’s price strictly depends on market demand and supply. Star players like Yamal and Mbappe are priced at 1.61 and 1.22 gold, respectively, translating to $1.61 and $1.22 per share.
Shares of less established players can be bought for as low as $0.02 each.
Play football
In this setting, player stock utilities extend beyond speculation. Fan users can create “teams” to compete in the site’s biweekly tournaments.
These teams and their lineups function similarly to a standard fantasy sports league, where performance on the field determines leaderboard standings. Points can be earned for goals scored and saves made, but also deducted for missed opportunities.
In each tournament, the top 3 players or goalkeepers will be recognized and rewarded, enhancing the immediate appeal of the platform.
As Tournament Points are essential to unlock packs, players are motivated to build teams for earning TP, which they then use to acquire shares.
However, trading shares on Football.Fun has its quirks. While users can own shares of top players, they can’t utilize all of them in every tournament. Instead, each share comes with four “contracts,” which restrict their use in tournaments. For example, a share of Jamin Ramal allows users to list him on the roster and earn points just four times. After that, they must “renew” the contract or buy additional shares to use him again in tournaments.
The platform, while still in its early phases, has already attracted over 12,000 unique depositors for its Pro product, with over 3 million gold currently available to purchase new player stocks. Future plans include introducing a scouting system to broaden the range of soccer players available.
