Manchester United's Web3 Strategy
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Hi, it's Lorenz here. ??
In the last few days, a ranking has repeatedly appeared in my LinkedIn feed: The World's 50 Most Valuable Soccer Clubs 2024 by Sportico. Today we're going to talk about number one. It's a club that has not only created legends but has managed to become a global brand that lives beyond the sporting performance on the pitch - they haven't won a league title for over a decade now...
?? As you may have guessed already - today, we'll be talking about Manchester United and what they've been up to in Web3 so far.
In particular we're going to talk about the following:
?? Their key Web3 partnership
?? All the activations they have done:
?? General thoughts
?? Man United vs. Man City
?? Their key Web3 partnership
When we talked about Man City last time, we also talked about a range of partners that were involved in those activations.
Manchester United on the other hand has partnered up with only one partner from the Web3 space. In February 2022 the Red Devils signed a sponsorship deal with Tezos. The blockchain thus became the official blockchain and training kit partner of Man Utd. The multiyear-deal is reportedly worth around ￡20 million per year.
That deal lead to consistency in the infrastructure and the environment of Manchester United's Web3 activations/programs, creating a non-confusing and "centralized" ecosystem for fans. However, it will be interesting to see what happens if the deal doesn't get extended...
FYI: Tezos has also worked with various other rights holders from sports such as McLaren (23/23 digital collectibles), Red Bull Racing, Team Vitality and the New York Mets.
?? All the activations they have done:
Now that we've talked about the foundation of Man Utd's Web3 activities we'll now take a look what they've actually done so far. It took some months from signing the sponsorship deal in February to releasing the first activation on the Tezos blockchain. From a crypto market perspective that meant that the partnership was signed in the highs of the hype that cooled down drastically until the first activation was executed.
?? The Key
The project was announced in the run-up for the end of the first part of the Premier League season ahead of the World Cup and run simultaneously to launching the club's own Discord.
Finally, in Mid-December of 2022 Manchester United started off their Web3 journey and dropped "The Keys". Those were key-themed and free-to-claim digital collectibles that came in one of three different tiers:
In terms of numbers this free drop performed quite good. A total of over 888.000 keys got claimed. Currently those are owned by 880.000 unique wallets/users.
?? The Devils
Just a few days after the first launch and just before Christmas, a second collection of digital collectibles was released. "The Devils" are a collection of 7.777 unique digital collectibles with unique traits. Linked to these traits are a selection of the benefits that holders get and we'll get into when we talk about "Devil Rewards: 23/24". Beyond that owners of a devil also got access to AMAs, private competition entries and exclusive airdrops.
In contrast to "The Key" collection, "The Devils" weren't free-to-claim. Each cost ￡30 respectively the equivalent amount in Tezos' crypto currency.
As previously mentioned, owners of "Ultra Rare" and "Rare" keys had the chance to buy some first, followed by the "Classic" keys and then the drop was opened to the general public. It took about 72 hours for the collection to sell out after the initial launch.
For those of you who don't want to do the math here: The drop probably generated around ￡233.000 in revenue (if there weren't any giveaways etc.) which is a drop in the ocean for a club with ￡648 million total revenue in 2023. That indicates that this has been done more for testing reasons and the other type of connection one has when paying for something.
?? Collect United: 2022/23
Throughout the rest of the 2022/23 season there were a small range of digital collectibles that were released respectively got airdropped to all or specific owners of a devil from the "The Devils" collection. All of them are part of the "Collect United" series of that very season. It includes the following collectibles:
?? Legends: 92/93 Collection
In July 2023 - 30 years after Manchester United has won the first-ever Premier League title - a series of collectibles were released to offer fans the possibility to own a part of the historic moment. A total of 604 digital collectibles have been sold with images of the historic day as the visual part. Additionally, each gave its owner access to one of the following benefits:
It's unfortunately not to my knowledge how much one of these collectibles cost.
?? Collect United: 23/24
For the still ongoing season, United launched a campaign called "Collect United: 23/24". The concept is quite simple: Ahead of every home game of both men's and women's team, fans can go to the site of Man Utd and claim a collectible related to that game. It's a free pre-match campaign that's in some form the digital version of the match-day program or a ticket stub for all fans, also those that cannot attend in stadium but follow the game on TV or consume it via social channels.
The campaign involves all league, cup and European competitions. Beyond the collecting part, Manchester United has also integrated an incentive structure into it making it some kind of rewards or low-lift loyalty program.
The following rewards can be earned by collecting all league, all European and simply all matches:
Numbers-wise Man Utd has been able to distribute a whopping 673.603 digital collectibles including all games (men, women, league, cup, Europe). On a per game basis that would be just under 20.000. The most claimed collectible is the one of the men's team game against Nottingham Forest in August 23 that features Rapha?l Varane and has been claimed 42.298 times.
?? Devil Rewards 23/24
The first rewards for devil owners have been distributed under the "Collect United" name that kind of has gotten a new role for this season. Consequently, Man Utd introduced "Devil Rewards 23/24" as a more comprehensive successor. In contrast to the "Collect United: 23/24" program this is a post-match campaign. Depending on certain traits of the devil one owns, fans get a commemorative collectible that celebrates the match itself or a certain aspect of it.
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For example every devil-holder will get one for each win of the men's and women's team. There are also more specific ones that focus on rarer traits - if you're interested in that, click the Link.
Numbers-wise this is obviously not too interesting since it one only serves a specific and limited audience and two is a activation that is free for fans.
???? Players Collection: Bruno Fernandes
In contrast to many others in the world of sports that launched digital collectibles/NFTs, Manchester United didn't pick to put their player's IP into the center of attention. The first ever player specific drop was only done in March 2024 which is quite contrary when comparing to other clubs.
It featured the club's current captain and his 10 (respectively 11) best goals - handpicked by himself. The collectibles were available in packs of 3 for ￡15,00 per pack. Beyond the collecting part, there were once again special benefits involved. Those who collected all 10 goals, unlocked the 11th one and got the chance to win a VIP Old Trafford match-day experience. Additionally, there were 50 special-edition digital collectibles that came along with a physical version.
Numbers-wise there are around 7.980 items within this collection that also involve the 11th and a 12th edition. The latter one was probably for free too. Leaving us with 7.2XX collectibles that were available in pack of three. Consequently approx. 2.400 packs were sold for ￡15,00 each, resulting in ￡36.000 in revenue. It was probably again more for testing etc. than for really making money with it.
?? General thoughts
Overall I would argue that Manchester United provides one of the best case studies when it comes to the intersection of Web3 with sports.
There are three things that I think are crucial when it comes to a rights holder's Web3 strategy and that Man Utd has performed very good in.
I) Engagement > Quick unsustainable revenue
For a long time NFTs were a tool for sports rights holders to make a quick buck. To be fair it's understandable from a commercial perspective to take advantage of a hype like we've seen with NFTs. However it's not something that was sustainable and often wasn't always targeted at ones own fans but the "crypto crowd" that is - although an often solvent one - a very niche audience.
Besides that many were also sold as stand-alone products resulting in a limited experience and with paid digital stuff that one couldn't do anything with.
First of all, Manchester United created an environment where fans could "do" something with their digital collectibles. Beyond that all the drops and activations were seemingly aimed to primarily engage fans both those who are interested in Web3 and the "average" one.
The focus seems to have been on gaining 'owned reach', engaging fans within one's own ecosystem and providing an innovative and positive experience. This provides various interesting potentials for all short-, mid- and long-term.
First, it's an innovative and engaging experience.
Secondly, that can be used to register fans. This happens in the form of a "platform-less community"/an "on-chain network of fans" that is being built on the blockchain and with email newsletters fans are prompted to sign up for within the claim-flow, join the Discord community or similar things.
This may be valuable because football clubs claim to have thousands, millions or hundred millions of fans but only "know" 1% of them because they tend to rely on intermediaries. Creating a direct-to-fan relationship can therefore result in direct (merch, tickets etc.) and indirect (sponsors) business opportunities.
It could also be interesting to have such a foundation when the whole Web3 and metaverse space matures and there is real money to be made with more sustainable business models. This would be especially true if wallets and our on-chain identity become a significant part of our (online) lives.
II) Consistency and a "central" platform for the fan
All of the already existing activations of the Red Devils have been done with infrastructure of their (at least for now) one consistent blockchain partner. Additionally, all have been launched within the own ecosystem on "collectibles.manutd.com ".
That means that all the "backend" (wallets and tokens) as well as the part of the experience that with that the user interacts knowingly haven't changed. When looking at others in the space this provides a great benefit: Consistency and a not fragmented fan journey.
Personally, I think that new innovative offerings enjoy the biggest success if they are provided in an environment that fans are used to and with as little friction as possible. Consequently, launching within ones own ecosystem and reducing technical effort as much as possible for the user seems like an optimal.
Imho Man Utd has done exactly that. However especially the technical more back-end side will be interesting to observe when the partnership with Tezos ends...
III) Simplicity
Educating fans at scale isn't an easy thing to do. If fans have to put in work and a lot of brain power on top of their love and support for the team, it's probably very likely that you'll loose them before they can actually enjoy the experience. If it takes three PDF-files and two DYOR (do your own research) sessions to understand it, it's probably time to rethink the campaign. If it is explained with one or two sentences, chances to get fans attention are probably a lot higher.
It seems like the people involved in the Web3 strategy and campaigns of Man Utd did exactly that. "The Key" was easy to understand and the user-journey was simple too and all of it happened in a somewhat familiar environment. It's the same for "Collect United: 23/24" and even their paid stuff. Beyond that most of them are based on a concept beloved in sports: collecting.
The concept is simple. The user journey is simple. The results are good. Coincidence? I don't think so....
?? SEG3 London is only 6 weeks away
This episode is brought to you by SEG3 - a leading sports event that helps sports, entertainment & gaming brands to discover the latest products, platforms and projects using emerging technologies.
On June 27-28 SEG3 will bring together leaders from Manchester United, Bundesliga International, Arsenal FC, Universal and many more.
Join them now and get 20% off your ticket with "TL20"! (Ticketing Link )
I'll be there too. So, hit me up when you're going and let's grab a coffee to chat!
?? Manchester United vs. Manchester City
It's time to talk about the Manchester derby. In the last edition of this series, we've talked about Man City's Web3 strategy. If you haven't read that one here's the Link .
Both clubs are at the forefront when it comes to innovation and building experiences for global audiences. There are few in football that are at the same level when it comes to this aspect. It's also worth mentioning that both have invested into human resources and expertise in Web3.
But who delivered the better end-product? Who was more innovative? Who is the winner of the first Web3 version of the Manchester derby?
Imho Man City was the club that was more innovative and faster. However, there may be such a thing as a first-mover disadvantage in Web3. Wether that's the case or not, I personally would choose Manchester United as the winner here.
In contrast to their rivals, the Red Devils have travelled their journey through Web3 with only one partner so far. Manchester City on the other hand has had various activations and products with different partners. It may be that this was the better idea from a short-term commercial perspective. From a user perspective however this comes with disadvantages. In case of Man City it's the fragmented user journey and imho that they do a lot of stuff in external ecosystems.
Let's be clear, the derby has only just begun. But Manchester United were ahead in three of the first four minutes of the game - at least in my humble opinion.
Looking forward to the remaining 86 minutes!
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Lead Software Engineer
6 个月I hope it is better than their current football game strategy. It is not going well for the last years ??