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LaLiga Santander, Spain’s top soccer league, has announced that it would be one of the first organizations to employ blockchain technology to validate goal-scoring balls. To install the technology, the university has already teamed with Gol-Ball, a third-party firm.
The technology, which is set to be implemented after the World Cup in Qatar in the beginning of 2023, will be used to track each ball used in each match and separate and identify which ones were used to score each goal — something that was not previously done because each football was rotated and mixed with the others.
LaLiga’s ambassador and former FC Barcelona star striker, Samuel Eto’o, emphasized the significance of this innovative technology. Eto’o said:
“Throughout my career as a footballer you would normally be given a ball only after scoring a hat-trick, but you were never sure it was the ball you actually scored any of the goals with. If we had been able to identify the goal scoring ball, my colleagues and I would have wanted all of them.”
LaLiga explained in a press release that these goal-scoring balls will be made available to all fans through “fan engagement methods” that will be revealed in January. This suggests the creation of secondary markets for these balls, which might be awarded to fans through raffles or paid participation, so opening up new engagement and income opportunities for the firm. The announcement also indicates that LaLiga is likely to dabble into NFTs with fans receiving digital representation of these balls as NFT.
Oscar Mayo, executive general director of LaLiga Santander, stated about this new link:
“It’s a bridge between the real world and digital world. We pride ourselves at LaLiga for innovating and offering our fans ways to feel more emotionally connected to their favorite clubs and idols.”