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FIFA Collect Rebrand ➕

In October 2022, FIFA launched FIFA+ Collect, a platform built as a home for their digital collectible activities, built on Algorand, FIFA’s then sole blockchain partner.

As covered on Sporting Crypto at the time, the proposition was simple.

Fans could buy digital packs, and historical FIFA World Cup moments (moving images in the form of NFTs, like Top Shot) were inside them. The packs themselves were $5 each and it was very easy to purchase, with a robust userflow allowing fans to purchase with regular currency, rather than crypto.

Within a couple of weeks of launching, FIFA had sold 161,000 out of their 550,000 ‘Genesis’ packs — showing fairly strong demand from their audience. Overall, 207,000 ‘Genesis’ packs were sold, with a further ~50,000 sold from their next four pack drops combined.

For a period, this strategy persisted — with FIFA+ Collect selling packs at low ticket prices. Slowly, they began introducing higher ticket items — such as the FIFA+ Collect Club VIP Membership which sold at $999. This was aimed at giving loyal collectors a variety of ‘money-can’t-buy’ experiences and opportunities and was limited to a supply of 100 packs.

In December 2023, FIFA decided to pursue a ‘multi-chain’ strategy, partnering with Layer 2 Ethereum scaling solution Polygon. A drop at the time commemorating the 2022 FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar was built on the Polygon blockchain.

In June 2024, FIFA announced a rebrand of their FIFA+ Collect platform to simply become FIFA Collect, powered by Modex. Modex are not a blockchain provider, but rather a blockchain-enterprise-service company founded in 2017. They launched their token in late 2023, and FIFA seem to be their flagship partner and client.

Since then, FIFA launched a collectible drop with the Romanian national team in the form of digital VIP memberships, ranging from $120 to $999.

These memberships provided buyers with perks such as discounted merchandise, a number of match tickets per year and even VIP dinners with Romanian football legends.

This is the first of several collaborations with various nations that FIFA Collect want to pursue.

Is there a coherent strategy?🤔

When last covering FIFA’s Web3 strategy, I wrote:

FIFA have a solid base here to further digitise their assets in the future, all on one slick platform. They and Algorand have started off their marriage on the right foot. It’ll be interesting to see where FIFA and their blockchain partner take the FIFA+ Collect platform.

Since then, they have partnered with another blockchain in Polygon and also a service provider in Modex — and the path to success for FIFA seems muddled from the outside.

Although they are using another technology provider and have partnered with a new vendor in Modex, the proposition remains the same. They are selling digital content to fans and hoping to make that sustainable. In 2024, however, that strategy is not sustainable. Whether static or moving images, FIFA is still looking at this in a very '2021' approach to Web3.

The experience appears to be slightly fractured by the fresh partnership with Modex and Polygon, also, with some drops exclusively launching on OpenSea, the NFT platform, creating another party in the equation and therefore another hurdle for fans to climb over to purchase the collectibles. This could be for regulatory purposes, of course.

Modex themselves have a roadmap until Q4 2025 detailed on their website, which is entirely centred around FIFA and the lead-up to the 2026 Mens World Cup.

On the roadmap, in 2024 Q2 and Q3, Modex outline further drops with national teams and drops related to previous World Cups, as well as exclusive partnerships with Adidas and football stars becoming ambassadors.

They also aim to list their token on a ‘tier 1’ crypto exchange in Q1 2025.

Modex have their own utility token, as mentioned previously, that was launched in October 2023, on the Ethereum blockchain.

As per press releases:

Analysis & Concluding Thoughts 🧠

As an incumbent, it’s always difficult to be at the bleeding edge of innovation.

FIFA in the past, have found great success in licensing their IP to vendors who are experts in a specific market.

The best example of this was their long-term partnership with EA, for the FIFA (now EA FC) video game series. The licensing deal for the series was worth 100s of millions of dollars, but when FIFA asked for $1bn for the next four years — EA decided they would rather go on without FIFA on the title of their next game. EA Sports FC was born, with the first edition launching in 2024. The game saw fewer sales, but overall made EA more money. FIFA on the other hand are still steadfast that they will launch a new game in the future, with developer 2K rumoured to be in the running for the license. Those rumours have not turned into anything of substance, since, however.

The relevance of FIFA’s gaming difficulties over the last 18 months is that they are trying to create a similar licensor-to-licensee relationship in Web3, to some extent mirroring the strategy they had in gaming.

The FIFA Web3 strategy, however, has been scattered and not very coherent since they came out with FIFA Collect. Since then, there has been a big push to monetize and simply sell digital content, which rarely works in the long term. Their multi-chain partnership with Polygon and Algorand indicates that FIFA wants the best of both worlds by partnering with multiple chains, which is not often seen with IP deals.

When examining Modex themselves, the vendor in this relationship, their website and roadmap seem ill-suited for a brand like FIFA. The roadmap appears unprofessionally assembled and vague, and the website lacks many best-in-class practices.

Additionally, Integrating Modex, who have their own token, complicates things further. Having a ‘utility token’ that doesn't govern a network but is still tradable on third-party exchanges, with FIFA listed as their flagship project, is an eyebrow-raiser. Based on lawsuits we've seen against Dapper Labs and Flow in the past— when a network or token is heavily reliant on a single project (NBA Top Shot in that example) there is precedent for regulatory scrutiny.

When looking at the digital content being sold, many of FIFA's drops include ‘money-can't-buy’ experiences, such as meeting former players or legends, which is great for fans who can afford these unique memberships. However, for the sponsor and vendor, the resources and time required to ensure these activities run smoothly often result in operating at a deficit. This is a common issue for long-term Web3 experiences from rights holders that grant ongoing access or experiences. You remain financially ‘on the hook’ until those tokens expire, or indefinitely if they have no expiration date, making sustainability from a business perspective challenging. FIFA themselves have to take charge and consider that selling ‘units’ of digital content forever will not yield results that make a dent for a brand this big. There has to be something bigger, more exciting, innovative, joined up and coherent that makes a mark on younger audiences.

Overall, this feels like a tick-box exercise for FIFA, especially considering their challenges in engaging younger audiences through gaming, a significant gap on the balance sheet now without the EA partnership. This again appears to be a straightforward licensor-licensee relationship, creating a fragmented user experience. From our research and experience, this rarely works sustainably over the long term.

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