Crowdfunding Football Transfer Market – Front Office Sports

Adrian Docea collects email addresses for the release of his company’s app to harness the power of one of the biggest sources of energy on the planet: football fans.

“Football is not just the biggest sport in the world, it’s the biggest sport in the world,” Dosia said. “He’s the only one on this planet with four billion fans.”

His company Nordensa is a platform that allows fans to place long-term bets on players, especially those who are not scouted.

It’s similar to Mojo, the “athlete stock market” backed by Alex Rodriguez. Here you can buy NFL player stocks that rise or fall based on their performance on the field, but with a twist.

Inter-club transfers are crowdfunded, minimizing team risk and benefiting participating fans if a player is successful.

untapped potential

What makes Nordensa special is that it works directly with the transfer market, with $6.5 billion in deals in 2022.

The company wants to tap into untapped niches, promising players not based in Europe.

Mainly top European teams scout mainly in continental Europe to find players with the skills and comfort of European culture to succeed in the Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A or Ligue 1 is easier.

Last year’s global player transfer data released by FIFA on Thursday shows a thriving player market. Most of the action is intracontinental, but much of the business is intercontinental.

• Of the 20,209 international transfers of professional men’s football players in leagues covered by FIFA, almost half (9,369) were within Europe.
• Another 4,056 were intercontinental migrants in other regions.
• European teams acquired 2,511 players from other continents, led by South America (901 players for a total of $388.2 million) and Africa ($759 million, $52.9 million).

The 2022 Premier League transfer scans bear this out in particular. Last year, he made fewer than 10 transfers to Premier League teams from outside Europe.

“If you’re a young player from Bolivia or Ghana, you’re not going to have scouts from Liverpool, Arsenal or Bayern Munich simply drop by your backyard and see how great you are,” Dosia explained.

Of Europe’s over 1,000 professional football teams, only a small percentage have significant scouting activities in other countries, creating a major blind spot in the search for global talent.

Crowdfunding money transfers are a way to encourage fans to invest and provide opportunities for players who may have to quit football for a more reliable paycheck.

“A lot of talented kids quit football before they had a chance to really shine,” said Dosia. “I think this is the worst news for football. Some of the biggest stars in the world are You will never know their names.”

matchmaking

Nordensa identifies talent using scouting software from third-party data providers for games televised in targeted regions, namely South America and Africa. Players are judged on approximately 60 metrics to create a set of potential recruits.

The company works with Premier League, Bundesliga and other top-flight scouts to further investigate outstanding players.

Once a player is selected for development, Nordensa connects the player’s squad with potential European clubs of interest. If the two clubs agree, crowdfunding will enter the equation.

Player investments are solicited on the platform and are mainly used for one year’s salary.

Of most European clubs, Dossair said: A lot of money just for testing one young player.

“That’s exactly the niche we’re trying to fill.”

potential payoff

Nordensa wants to leverage a reward system familiar to fantasy sports and sports betting.

If the player extends his contract with the club or signs with another European team, those who helped fund the first year will receive 3% of the player’s future earnings plus money. increase.

Nordensa receives 3% plus surcharges from clubs, but the player is only paid by the club that employs him.

Docea estimates that investors will double their funding if the player signs a professional contract a year after the Nordensa-funded transfer.

You can invest 4-5x if a player ends up in the Serie A or Bundesliga, or 10x if they go to the Premier League. Investors don’t get anything in return if they don’t sign deals.

With both soccer and legal sports betting on the rise in the United States, betting looks increasingly promising, taking advantage of sports fans who are willing to take risks and enjoy devouring data.

A new kind of bet?

The platform hasn’t launched yet, but Nordensa has put the names of interested users on a waiting list.

They are said to also have “big plans with MLS” in the coming months.

An estimated $35 billion was wagered on the 2022 World Cup. As the US finally gets a taste of the action, enthusiasm for sports betting only grows. But all of these bets are contracts between individuals and sportsbooks, and the broader effect is to enrich a small group of companies.

Ultimately, Nordensa could work like a sportsbook. The question is how many of the four billion football fans can he support?