Manchester United have secured a multi-year partnership with blockchain platform Tezos worth a reported £20m per season.
United have, according to The Athletic, entered into a deal with Tezos for the sponsorship of their training kit as the Old Trafford club seek to try and raise commercial revenues through new markets having suffered a £24m loss in their most recent set of published financial accounts.
The link-up with Tezos sees Manchester United become the latest club to tie in with a blockchain or cryptocurrency business, with Liverpool yet to make serious inroads in this particular market having sought the thoughts of fans around potential link-ups with this emerging, lucrative yet controversial market.
United had a £120m eight-year deal with Aon end last year, with that particular deal having included both the training kit sponsorship rights as well as the naming rights for Carrington, something that isn't part of the Tezos agreement.
READ MORE: Sadio Mane realises Jurgen Klopp hope as Liverpool prepare for AFCON fallout
READ MORE: What Sadio Mane did for Mohamed Salah after scoring winning penalty for Senegal against Egypt
Blockchain platforms are seen by advocates as a way of making transactions more efficiently, while the software itself is what is used as the basis for such things as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the digital collectables that have become a lucrative business, including for football clubs in recent months.
Detractors point to the environmental impact of the technology, which produces a large amount of carbon through the volume of computing power required.
Tezos has its own cryptocurrency, 'Tez', which is users trade to try and make profit, but the Athletic reports that United have done due diligence on the company following recent embarrassing episodes for other Premier League clubs including Manchester City, who entered into a partnership with a mysterious crypto firm called 3Key, who despite City claiming they undertook the necessary due diligence had no executives who appeared in online searches. The relationship was ended after two months.
Liverpool have yet to really seek an inroad into the blockchain/crypto/NFT market, although they have canvassed supporters for their views on certain aspects linked to the technology.
As a club, Liverpool have been holding back on diving into such markets, especially given the reputational damage that owners Fenway Sports Group are still trying to repair following the fallout of their part in the doomed European Super League debacle last year.
With strides made forward in terms of real fan engagement and the creation of a new Supporters Board, the club have not been keen to risk undoing some of the good work that has been done.
But with potentially large sums of money being left on the table, Liverpool have begun the process of sounding out supporter feeling towards NFTs and cryptocurrency.
As part of Liverpool's efforts to improve fan engagement the club has a 'Your Voice' questionnaire sent out periodically, where the views of supporters are canvassed on a whole range of subjects concerning the football club.
Questionnaires are sent out to fans who subscribe to receive them as part of the club's online research community, with the results helping to shape the debate around what happens behind the scenes at the club.
The most recent questionnaire sent out was in relation to NFTs and cryptocurrency, with the club asking supporters for their views on this new, potentially lucrative but still controversial market.
It asked for supporters to state how they would feel should the club enter into any of these markets in the future, the potential answers ranging from very negative to very positive.
Liverpool kit supplier Nike recently struck a deal that could have an impact on their partnership with the Reds in the future, a partnership that sees the Reds get 20 per cent from the sale of Liverpool and Nike branded merchandise globally, on top of the guaranteed £30m per season that they receive.
Nike have entered into a new market that could provide Liverpool with even more opportunity to ramp up the value that exists within the deal through the sale of virtual items.
Nike have acquired RTFKT, a digital company that merges culture and gaming and one that could see virtual Nike/Liverpool merchandise available to purchase in the metaverse that has given rise to digital collectables in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a market that has boomed over the past 18 months and arrived onto the sporting scene in a big way.
Liverpool's own training kit deal with AXA was worth the same £20m price in 2019, which then expanded to over £50m as the sponsorship of the new training centre in Kirkby was included last year.
When Liverpool come to the table to next negotiate their kit deal with AXA, set to be later this year, they will likely have an even stronger position.
