AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands — April 23, 2018 – Social media powerhouse 433 has sealed new strategic partnerships with cryptocurrency pioneers vSport Chain and sports organization Sport 8. Both vSport Chain and Sport 8 are creations of a pairing between artificial intelligence entrepreneur Qiang Bai and world-renowned football star Wesley Sneijder. vSport Chain is a token-powered platform, while Sport 8 is a successful sports education platform. Juul Manders, CEO of 433, will join the advisory board of both organizations, bringing vast knowledge and experience in the European football markets.
433 and vSport Join Forces
vSport Chain is product from Sports Value Foundation, dedicated to creating a public chain for the global sports industry. It is the world’s first fully open, non-profit, blockchain-powered platform specifically for the sports industry.
“I believe Blockchain can help to bring balance to the economics of sports. That is why we launched our sports-chain project,” states Wesley Sneijder, co-founder. “I’m excited to see an open and decentralised sports community that focuses on fans first.”
Further, vSport Coin (VSC) is a cryptocurrency based on vSport Chain. VSC can be used for football related transactions including ticket purchases, funding youth prodigies, club memberships, and rewards for fan engagement on social media.
“Technology has reshaped many industries. Now, with blockchain technology, it is time to re-shape the sports industry. People say in the age of AI, sports will be a major activity for human beings – then sports industry needs to catch up with the development of the technology. ” Qiang Bai, executive director of vSport and CEO of Sport 8.
vSport aims at redefining and constructing a revolutionary and self-adapting value system for the sports industry, with the eventual goal of bring sports back to their roots: a community activity that gives back. vSport is already working with many organizations, including football clubs and associations, manufacturers, and more. As of now, they are the only sports blockchain for commercial use.
Collaboration between 433 and Sport 8
In addition to their partnership with vSport chain, 433 will begin collaborating with another project of Sneijder and Bai – Sport 8. Sport 8 will help 433 to manage their official channels in China.
They will collaborate to create and share content through Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, and other social media platforms in China to reach the huge market of 600 million football fans. Both companies are dedicated to creating an engaging community that includes fans, federations, teams, and players.
“I’m excited to announce the partnership between 433 and Sport 8. It’s a great way to bring interesting content over from 433’s global audiences to Chinese football fans,” Sneijder states. “433 is the biggest football community on social media, they are doing great things every day to share football with the world. Some of the best players, guys I played with, are following 433. They are bringing fans and players together in new ways. Plus, it’s a company with Dutch origins, so it always made sense for me.”
433 is the largest football community on social media. Over 16 million people follow 433, including at least 14,000 professional footballers from the world’s top 50 leagues. 433’s influence and reach have attracted collaborations with top brands like Nike, Samsung, Sony, Hilton, and Adidas. On a monthly basis 433 generates 2 billion impressions and an estimated 675 million views on Instagram. According to NewsWhip, 433 has the highest average in engagements on posts, beating the likes of Bleacher Report, ESPN, Bleacher Report Football, and Sportbible.
“Extending our community to China and Asia with the enormous amount of passionate football fans [there] is what attracted us to this project. Becoming media partners with vSport will enable us to deliver our premium content to a massive and significant market. We’re excited about the opportunity to continue building the brand while helping fans and clubs monetize in a more efficient way,” states Juul Manders.
Both partnerships will officially begin on April 23, 2018.
“VSC’s public sale toward the community is available on April 24. In May, VSC will be listed on the cryptocurrency exchanges.” Wesley announced at the end of the press conference.
