In Brief:
- Chiliz Group CEO Alexandre Dreyfus said on FOX Business that transparent voting is the main reason to put Fan Tokens on a blockchain.
- Chiliz is now taking the Socios Fan Token model to U.S. college sports, starting with LSU, Maryland, Michigan State, Penn State and Texas A&M.
- Part of the token revenue goes to student-athlete NIL programs, and Chiliz has set a target of 30 university athletic departments within 12 months.
Chiliz Group CEO Alexandre Dreyfus went on FOX Business to argue that the case for running college Fan Tokens on a blockchain comes down to one thing: verifiable fan votes.
“The biggest point of doing blockchain is the transparency of the voting,” Dreyfus said in the segment, which aired Sept. 29. Chiliz shared the clip on X and said that with Fan Tokens, “fan decisions become verifiable and transparent onchain.”
"The biggest point of doing blockchain is the transparency of the voting," says Chiliz Group CEO @alex_dreyfus on FOX Business.
With @FanTokens, fan decisions become verifiable and transparent onchain.
Now we're bringing that model to U.S. college sports.
“Now we’re bringing that model to U.S. college sports,” the company said.
The FOX Business segment
Dreyfus joined from Washington. FOX Business reporter Darren Botelho asked why the product needs a blockchain at all.
Dreyfus gave stadium-level examples. If fans vote on a song to play in the stadium or on a new jersey number, the result is recorded onchain, where anyone can check it.
Kris Kassel, SVP of sports growth and innovation at Playfly Sports, appeared from a Maryland stadium. He said families aren’t likely to back athlete payments directly but will spend on “Experiences and fan events” they actually want.
Botelho also raised the downside case. If interest fades and demand drops, he said, an oversupply of tokens could push prices down, leaving fans with assets worth little on resale and schools’ NIL funds short. The answer given on air was that the tokens aren’t financial instruments and are meant for the fan experience.
Five schools, 30 targeted
Socios.com announced its first U.S. deals on July 21. The five founding programs are Louisiana State University, the University of Maryland, Michigan State University, Penn State University and Texas A&M University.
Fan Token Management (FTM) US, part of The Chiliz Group, signed the agreements with Playfly Sports. Chiliz said they’re the first Fan Token deals in the U.S. and the first anywhere in college sports.
The company has set a target of 30 college Fan Token launches within 12 months. It said the tokens were planned to launch before the end of the 2026 calendar year, following the FIFA World Cup.
Holders get voting rights on fan-facing decisions, priority ticket access and exclusive rewards, according to Chiliz.
NIL money onchain
The college version adds a revenue split. Chiliz said “a meaningful proportion of revenue generated from Fan Token sales will go directly toward supporting student-athletes across college’s entire athletic department through Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) programs.”
The company said that NIL funding will be publicly visible onchain.
“Fan Tokens will provide fans, alumni and supporters everywhere with a new way to connect, engage and be rewarded for their fandom,” Dreyfus said when the deals were announced.
Regulatory backdrop
The U.S. push followed joint SEC and CFTC guidance presented March 17 at the DC Blockchain Summit. That guidance cited Socios.com and classified Fan Tokens as digital collectibles and digital tools.
Chiliz said the guidance came after more than five years of regulatory talks. It has called the guidance the groundwork that let U.S. sports organizations discuss the tokens without guessing at their classification.
Socios.com counts more than 70 sports organizations as partners, including Arsenal, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona, along with the national teams of Argentina, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Belgium.
One token, one vote?
The transparency pitch has limits. In current fan token models, voting weight scales with holdings, and the tokens trade freely. A blockchain makes the tally auditable. It doesn’t give every fan an equal say.
On campus, Chiliz’s own examples of what that vote could decide were a stadium song and a jersey number.
