NEW YORK CITY, Oct. 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SportsCastr, the company behind the decentralized sports ecosystem and cryptocurrency FanChain, today announced a three-year exclusive partnership with FanWide, the digital platform that helps out-of-market sports fans find local game watch parties and events. Through this agreement, FanWide will integrate SportsCastr’s FanChain token (FANZ) to provide cryptocurrency rewards to users, which can be redeemed for perks like merchandise, game tickets, and experiences within the FanWide platform. FanWide will also integrate functionality into its platform to incentivize its users to “go live” on SportsCastr from the hundreds of thousands of watch parties listed through its service.
“As the first third-party platform to support FanChain, FanWide is a powerful launchpad to expand outside of SportsCastr,” said SportsCastr CEO Kevin April. “This partnership will introduce FanChain to the world’s most passionate fans, and provide a pathway for FanChain to be accepted at the more than 10,000 sports bars and venues in FanWide’s database.”
FanWide is a free website and app that connects sports fans from every team in any city through in-person meetups organized by local fan clubs, while also managing the world’s largest database of those clubs. Since launching in September 2016, FanWide has helped fans across the country connect by organizing and promoting more than 750,000 local watch parties via its platform. In addition to promoting existing in-person game watch parties, FanWide also develops new communities for over 1,250 professional, collegiate, and international teams.
“FanWide is excited to join the FanChain ecosystem and reward our users with FANZ tokens whenever they attend a game watch party for their favorite team,” said FanWide President and Founder Symon Perriman. “As the world’s largest fan club network, we have been looking for a solution like FanChain to help us to continue to engage our fans, wherever they live or travel.”
“FanWide’s support of FanChain will allow our users to be rewarded for supporting their favorite teams and local businesses, through actions like ‘checking in’ to game watch parties,” said Cliff Avril, Former NFL Star and FanWide Advisor. “Looking forward, we can see many uses for FanChain on our platform, including in-person and online commerce, and the ability for fans to donate their tokens to a charity or cause, such as the Cliff Avril Family Foundation or their alumni associations.”
FanChain’s decentralized infrastructure allows its technology to be integrated with platforms like FanWide, fantasy sports providers, social networks, sports teams, leagues, and venues. Built specifically for the global sports market, the FanChain token has the ability to be “stamped” with metadata that associates it with teams, leagues or sporting events. This allows SportsCastr, FanWide and future members of the FanChain ecosystem to reward fans for creating value for their favorite teams, and enables brands and organizations to target and reward their most passionate fans.
SportsCastr has also recently entered into agreements with the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), the WNBA Players Association (WNBPA) and Friday Night Fights (FNF) around broadcasting and other fan engagement initiatives. SportsCastr is backed by NBA Commissioner Emeritus David Stern, NFL Tight End Vernon Davis, Syracuse Men’s Basketball Coach Jim Boeheim, NBA All-Star Steve Smith and more. This summer, the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) announced that it had acquired a minority ownership stake in the company.
About SportsCastr
SportsCastr is a social OTT platform for sports that allows viewers to personalize who calls the game for them, and allows viewers to “go live” and and share their own commentary. SportsCastr will allow members to use FanChain to tip broadcasters, unlock pay-per-view events, purchase subscriptions and more. The company is backed by some of the biggest names in sports including the the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), NBA Commissioner Emeritus David Stern and Super Bowl Champion Vernon Davis. For more information, visit https://SportsCastr.com
About FanChain
FanChain, developed by SportsCastr, is a token and decentralized ecosystem built specifically for the global sports market. The FanChain ecosystem includes a payment gateway, exchange platform, rewards portal, wallet and a DApp that allows third-party companies to be whitelisted to distribute and reward fans and users with FanChain tokens (“FANZ”). For more information, please visit www.fanchain.com.
About FanWide
FanWide is a free website and app that helps sports fans find the closest fan club or game watch party for any team in any city, while rewarding the fans for engaging with each other and sponsors. FanWide manages the world’s largest database of sports fan clubs and provides services for fan clubs and alumni associations, pro and college teams, corporate sponsors, athletes and influencers, and TV broadcasters.