Sports fans have experienced their hobby the same way for decades. Pre-1990s, it was mostly done by visiting the stadium. Then, after big deals like Sky forming the Premier League, it became much more frequently televised. Yet in the last 10-15 years, arguably since the invention of Twitter, fan engagement has been much more about the fans and their own community building.
How fans become participants
Sports engagement today is mostly done in the comment sections. It might be an Arsenal Fan TV clip on YouTube, or a discussion ignited on a Twitter thread from a baseball fan with a large following. It’s 24/7, that’s for sure, though nobody saw just how much it would proliferate on TikTok.
Sports clubs are not just competing with each other anymore for ticket sales. They’re competing with Netflix and gaming studios for attention. Around 85% of viewers now use a second device while watching live sport. They want their voice to be heard, but they’re also looking for more interesting ways to consume (e.g., additional, better analysis than TV pundits, or live stats).
Building new loyalty
Football communities were always loud. But the technology is now finding new ways to harness this huge energy, from club subreddits, Discord servers, and even official apps all becoming spaces that fans can turn to. They join in, react, but also create, sharing tactical breakdowns or commenting on transfer rumours.
Fan sentiment on digital platforms is precisely what is informing commercial decisions now. It’s how a transfer is announced, how a kit launch is timed. When hundreds of thousands of people are discussing your brand in real time, ignoring it would be a strange move. After all, clubs are a reflection of their communities. “Fans make football”.
Giving fans a genuine stake in the action
This is where things get interesting, with an economy and social currency. Fan tokens are digital assets issued by clubs to give holders more than something to collect. Their tokens let them make governance votes, like on the kit design, or it’s the pass to exclusive experiences. They have a utility that impacts real life.
FanTokens tracks these across the biggest names in global sport, from PSG to Barcelona to Manchester City. It’s not just soccer either. The fan engagement claim holds up: research analysing four major European clubs found the activity is driven by genuine fan sentiment rather than market speculation. This is a huge deal to separate themselves from NFT gimmicks and actually establish new ways to govern. It’s as if we economised Twitter, where old tweets were rewarded for loyalty.
It’s the same principle that runs through sports technology more broadly. The rise of in-play micro-betting, well-documented in sports betting industry trends, shows that when fans have skin in the game, attention deepens. Like all companies, sports teams want engagement. So, unlike film and TV shows, fan participation is possible.
The tech is now ready. We have AR stadium experiences, stat overlays on live streams, and more and more second-screen tools. There’s a real risk in over-gamification, but it will be the fan sentiment – their voting and feedback – which will help gauge this before it becomes a problem.
