[INTERVIEW] Chiliz spent 6 years studying about Korean market, and it's time to increase

By Lee Yeon-woo

Right here’s an intriguing truth: baseball reigns as the preferred sport in Korea. Even amongst soccer followers, European groups are favored over native ones.

On this difficult setting for home soccer, Chiliz — a blockchain firm established in 2018 — has stepped in. Beginning this yr, it has been saying a collection of collaborations with native entities.

In February, it partnered with the Ok League, providing followers the chance to bid on their favourite stars’ scored ball, with its authenticity verified via NFTs.

In Could, it fashioned an alliance with Naver Pay, Korea’s largest fee platform that boasts a 33 million home consumer base. Naver Pay launched a beta service for a digital asset pockets, with Chiliz Chain changing into its inaugural blockchain companion.

Nonetheless, Chiliz CEO Alexandre Dreyfus believes that is just the start of the corporate’s relationships with Korean companies. Desirous to increase, he hopes to generate synergy from these rising partnerships.

The Korea Instances held an unique in-person interview with Dreyfus throughout his latest go to to Korea Blockchain Week on Sept. 3.

“The Ok League was our first Korean sports activities property, however positively not the final. We have been in talks with many leagues and groups, together with in baseball. We have additionally been in discussions with a lot of leisure corporations,” Dreyfus mentioned.

One among Chiliz’s principal perks is providing soccer followers the flexibility to buy “fan tokens” in collaboration with over 170 sports activities golf equipment worldwide, together with FC Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur FC and Paris Saint-Germain FC. These tokens give followers the prospect to vote on minor workforce choices, offering a better sense of belonging. The tokens are traded utilizing Chiliz’s cryptocurrency, $CHZ.

Chiliz CEO Alexandre Dreyfus, middle, speaks throughout a session at Korea Blockchain Week at a lodge in Seoul, Sept. 3. On the best is Pär Helgosson, head of internet 3 and metaverse at Paris Saint-Germain FC. Courtesy of Factblock

All through the interview, Dreyfus emphasised his hopes to create synergy between collaborations.

“I am a really sturdy believer in bridging sports activities and leisure. As an example, if we are able to invite a Ok-pop band in Europe for a match, it is sort of a co-marketing alternative. The soccer workforce can promote the band. The band can promote the soccer workforce. Then there are some followers holding tokens, or utilizing Naver Pay, can have alternatives to go to there,” Dreyfus mentioned.

“One other dream is to use the transaction operate on Naver Pay. To illustrate you’ve gotten a PSG token in your Naver Pay pockets. You get a couple of 10 p.c low cost within the Nike store as a result of Nike is the sponsor of PSG. That is the sort of issues I prefer to attempt to work on.”

Though the transformation in fan expertise has been profitable in Europe, one query stays: can it obtain the identical success in Korea?

Dreyfus acknowledged that cultural variations in fan engagement exist right here, however he believes they don’t essentially pose a drawback for Chiliz.

“In Korea, we’re bringing in Western groups’ IPs. However Korean followers clearly need to interact with worldwide manufacturers. For instance, in Italy, followers solely love their native groups and don’t care about others. In Korea, individuals observe worldwide groups extra as a result of, to be trustworthy, the native groups have much less affect,” Dreyfus mentioned. “I prefer to name them ‘informal followers.’ On common, they assist about 4.6 groups.”

Chiliz CEO Alexandre Dreyfus and Ok League Secretary Normal Cho Yeon-sang pose after a meetup at Korea Blockchain Week at a lodge in Seoul, Sept. 3. Courtesy of Chiliz

On the identical time, the home soccer league is rising. As of July, the cumulative attendance for Ok League 1 and a couple of had surpassed 2 million spectators — the quickest this milestone has been reached for the reason that introduction of the promotion and relegation system in 2013.

Ok League Secretary Normal Cho Yeon-sang additionally instructed The Korea Instances that the collaboration supplied distinctive experiences and varied contents that followers can get pleasure from even outdoors Ok Leauge match days.

Nonetheless, laws stay a key problem for a lot of international tasks, together with Chiliz. Fan tokens for the Ok League haven’t been launched but, and the B2C providers Chiliz provides in different nations are at present unavailable in Korea.

Dreyfus famous that Chiliz continues to be ready for additional specifics, though the Digital Asset Person Safety Regulation has clarified some guidelines.

“That’s why, over the previous six years, we’ve taken our time to be taught. I’ve most likely visited Seoul 40 instances, particularly earlier than COVID-19. I used to be right here each different month. If it takes one other two or three years to launch one thing really significant from a product standpoint, we’re keen to attend,” he mentioned.

“We positively need to make investments, and we’re eager to introduce some out-of-the-box concepts. Typically, it’s simpler to innovate whenever you’re not a neighborhood.”