We can file this podcast under the banner heading of Web3 WTF, an occasional series in which we talk to a wide range of people about sport’s relationship with the next iteration of the internet. 

Future episodes will talk to people on every side of this subject, from new blockchain, web3 and metaverse startups to financiers, agencies, fans and sports rights holders. 

Unofficial Partner’s position on this topic is that nobody knows everything. Each conversation is a partial view in to this fast evolving and exciting space, with opportunities for experimentation and mistakes.  

Today’s guest is Joey D’Urso, the investigations writer of The Athletic. And the subject is fan engagement tokens, crypto currency and football clubs. 

D’Urso has written a series of deep dives in to Socios, the most prominent and controversial of a new generation of self styled ‘fan engagement’ apps, which promise to tokenise the relationship between clubs and fans by creating digital assets that can be exchanged for real life benefits. 

This ‘Ultimate App for Superfans’ has numerous valuable licensing deals in place with clubs and star players around the world.

So we use D’Urso’s reporting as the context for our conversation, specifically a story he wrote on the transfer of Lionel Messi from Barcelona to Paris St Germain in August 2021. 

If you want to join us in asking more questions about sport and web3, you should come to our first Unofficial Partner event, taking place in September in London. 

You can register your interest for the event in the show notes to this podcast or via the Unofficial Partner newsletter. Sign up via the UnofficialPartner.com

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.
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We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. 

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. 

Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. 

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. 

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.