Two people from Munich want to bring Bundesliga fans to the Metaverse with The Football Club – with the financial support of active and former players.
Football is no longer played only in stadiums or in schoolyards, but also on the Internet. Millions of football fans live out their club loyalty in the web’s fantasy leagues. With The Football Company, the Munich brothers Ante and Kristo Josip founded a startup in September 2020 that sees its market right there: on the platform The Football Club (TFC) they sell digital fan articles for the digital football world.
If you’re buying a jersey, sports bag or cap with the heart club logo in real life, you can also do so as a fan of the fantasy football version of your club. Fans can equip their avatars with so-called Tokens, 3D digital images of fan items. The startup earns by trading the tokens on the TFC market, has an official DFL license and cooperation agreements with a list of top clubs such as Eintracht Frankfurt, VfL Wolfsburg, Hertha BSC.
Four football stars as investors
About a year and a half after its creation in September 2021, the Metaverse startup raised 2.5 million euros during a funding round. In addition to professional investors such as Dreamcraft Ventures and BLN Capital, DapperLabs and Web3 Studios, various business angels also participated, including football professionals such as national team player Joshua Kimmich (FC Bayern Munich) and Cesc Fabregas (AS Monaco). The two footballers join two former colleagues: the brothers Niko and Robert Kovač, both former Bundesliga players at FC Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen, among others, are the founding investors of the Munich startup.
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Asked about his motivations, Niko Kovač was quoted as follows: “The Metaverse offers football fans incredible new opportunities to express their passion for their club and show their individuality. This will take the attractiveness of fantasy football to a whole new level. From the start, the startup’s goal was to give football fans the easiest possible access to the world of NFTs and the Metaverse.
Just a few days ago, soccer app One Football presented similar plans as part of a funding round that turned the startup into a unicorn: Under the name Onefootball Labs, the Berliners want to enable clubs, leagues, associations and players to create digital assets. technology-based Sell blockchain to fans through the platform – also as accessible as possible, an email address and credit card should be enough to be able to buy digital fan items from your clubs.