Luis Vicente Chairman of Apex Capitala fund dedicated to investing in sports, elite athletes, media and entertainment, with a well-known participation in the world of motorsports in the A1GP; gave an interview to the Spanish sports newspaper Marca and stated that F1 is on its way to becoming the benchmark sport for blockchain technology.
Likewise, Vicente assured that it was easier to accept the innovation of this technology for a car sports fan than for a soccer fan, since for the competitors, having technology translated into seconds gained on the track.
“F1 has a very big advantage. It is a very innovative sport. It is part of the technology industry and it is always very competitive. Everybody does everything to win.”commented for MARCA Luis Vicente.
Possible applications of blockchain technology in F1
On the other hand, Vicente spoke in the interview about “infinities” contributions that blockchain could do in F1, one example of them was pilot tokenization. “People will be able to crowdfund digitally to finance a young driver’s career and, if they make it to F1, have a return on investment.” he explained.
Projection the data protection provided by blockchain technology, and said that the F1 teams are looking for a return, as it is very important to them. “They are very interested in blockchain technology to adopt this level of security”said Luis Vicente.
talked about the races of each week which could be improved through personalized experiencesbased on the interaction of the fans with the team, which -according to him- was not possible until now, thanks to the development of surveys and prizes by Socios.com, a company of which he is also a member of the advisory board.
Vincent too spoke of the possibilities offered by the Metaverse, a technology that in his opinion has not yet been fully exploited, “Williams, for example, through Terra Virtua, wants to connect fans with the Grand Prix: listen to all the radios, understand the strategies. Fans don’t want to be passive spectators.”Vincent argued.
Empowering associations
According to a study by Nielsen Sports, Formula UNO has the potential to reach more than a billion fans around the world.If we see it this way, it would go at a perhaps similar pace in the adoption of blockchain technology and crypto assets, the combination of both sectors would represent a very important market in sports. According to the Nielsen report of the 10 teams that are currently on the grid, at least nine are directly linked to companies in this sector of cryptocurrencies and blockchain.
In this sense, Vicente also recalled that in its innovative character, F1 was the first sport to have sports sponsorships in the 1960s, the first to take those sponsorships to terms of absolute professionalism. He also pointed out that the teams need to find new sources of income because not everything can be based on TV rights, merchandising, tickets. “Blockchain will help a lot because it will open up other sources of income, but its contribution will go far beyond financial. From the point of view of utility, the blockchain will bring, and in fact is already bringing, innumerable solutions and benefits to sport”he commented to MARK.
“An F1 team will know a maximum of 10 percent of its potential fans: knowing why they like the team, their hobbies… This new industry can make that percentage grow”he added.
“The sponsor now wants direct access to the community, and the teams don’t have the data to know that, but they do have access. Once again, blockchain will be important”Vincent explained.
Finally, it should be noted that this movement of alliances of companies in the cryptocurrency sector with F1, has linked F1 itself and Liberty Media – the competition organizer – with Crypto.com, different teams such as Alfa Romeo and Aston Martin that signed with Socios.com, Ferrari with Velas, Alpha Tauri with Fantom, Alpine with Binance, OKX with McClaren.
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