decrypt.co
Chiliz has built a growing stable of traditional sports team partners for its Socios.com fan token portal, including FC Barcelona, Juventus, and Paris Saint-Germain, but now the company has one of the leading teams in the gaming space too.
This week, Socios.com released the $OG Fan Token for esports organization OG, one of the most dominant teams in recent years. OG is the first team to win back-to-back championships at Dota 2’s annual International tournament in 2018 and 2019, racking up more than $33 million in winnings along the way. Recently, the organization added a team in the popular first-person shooter game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO).
The $OG Fan Token allows buyers to interact with the team in various ways via the Socios.com website and app, including voting on certain team decisions, entering contests, and gaining access to VIP events and exclusive merchandise. Currently, $OG Fan Token owners can vote on which in-game banner OG players will use in Dota 2 this season.
“We are honored to work closely with Socios.com so that our fans have the opportunity to participate in building OG’s story,” said OG CEO and Dota 2 captain Johan “n0tail” Sundstein, in a release.
“Socios.com gives fans a voice, so the link with OG was quite natural. Enhancing the connection with our community has always been part of OG’s DNA. With Socios.com, we will be able to take it to the next level. We want to push the experience further, by offering them the opportunity to have a real impact in some of OG’s decisions.”
First announced last summer, the tie-up with OG is Socios.com’s first esports partnership. However, as Chiliz CEO Alexandre Dreyfus told Decrypt in February, the company hopes to have more than 50 total partnerships in place with sports, esports, and entertainment brands by the end of 2020.
Yesterday, Chiliz announced a partnership with fellow blockchain startup Chainlink that allows the company to create digital memorabilia by minting non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to commemorate sports milestones. Chainlink’s LINK cryptocurrency shot up in value yesterday following the news, rising about 17% and nearing $5 before correcting and settling around $4.75 per token.