Web3-based football management game Footium scores $3.35 million

For every champion, there will always be a challenger. While Football Manager is perhaps the best and most well-known in the genre, Footium is blowing the whistle, raising a yellow card, and offering football fans an alternative option. 

By introducing player-owned assets via a blockchain, Footium is providing a true multiplayer experience whereby participants of the genre no longer grind away in a single-player mode competing against an AI, but with the enablement of an in-game economy, can compete against each other, all with the opportunity to gain significant real-world money.

“Blockchain is pioneering an economic revolution in gaming by enabling gamers to participate in the economics of the games they love,” explained Pascal Suhrcke, Investor at BACKED. “Footium is doing exactly that for Football Manager - a category primed to benefit from play-to-earn mechanics. Instead of spending hours grinding in single-player mode for locked, in-game rewards, Footium has built a true multiplayer experience, in which players can realise digital ownership and capture a fair share of economic value for their in-game achievements.”

As just one demonstration of this economic opportunity, when Footium’s initial stock of some 3,000 football clubs hit the market in November of last year, it sold out in 1,380 seconds, or 23 minutes. That’s just over 2 teams a second.

Since then, some top-tier clubs have traded hands on secondary markets such as OpenSea, for over $30,000, a figure that accounts for a 160x ROI.

Notable club owners active on Footium include football media brand Copa90, Dutch footballer Nigel de Jong, international cricketers Ravi Bopara and Carlos Brathwaite, and Footium angel investor Chris Smalling.

Building upon the initial success of the platform, and its significant financial potential, Footium has raised $3.35 million in a seed round led by BACKED, with Animoca Brands, Stride VC, Entrée Capital, RLC Ventures all participating. Gaming guilds such as Yield Guild Games SEA, BAYZ, Merit Circle, and BlackPool DAO, have all shown their financial support for the platform, as well as Biconomy CEO Ahmed Balaghi alongside previously mentioned Ex-Manchester United and England International Football centre-back Chris Smalling.