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Web3 boom: Footium which lets players own an NFT football club zips $3.35M funding, kicks off in the Metaverse world

Footium
Image credits: Footium

Footium, a blockchain-based football management game, announced that it has raised $3.35M in a seed funding round led by London-based VC firm BACKED to build a metaverse world of football.

Other investors include Animoca Brands, Stride VC, Entrée Capital, RLC Ventures, Yield Guild Games SEA, BAYZ, Merit Circle, and BlackPool DAO, who joined the round. With this investment, Footium will add more clubs for new players.

Angel investors like Chris Smalling (Ex-Manchester United and England International Football Player), and Ahmed Balaghi of Biconomy, participated in the round.

“The Footium team has revolutionised football gaming,” says angel investor and former Manchester United & England International star Chris Smalling. “I am glad to be backing them and their vision.”

Web3 Football management game

Footium is a web3 Football management game that allows players to become the owner, manager, and scout for their very own metaverse football club, and earn prizes based on their success.

Footium differs from other football management games such as Football Manager through its use of blockchain technology, claims the company.  

The player-owned assets in the game create a competitive, multiplayer game where users compete against each other rather than an AI. It also enables a transfer market, in-game economy, and the chance to earn money from performing well.

In November 2021, the initial supply of 3000+ football clubs on Footium sold out in just 23 minutes. 

Since then, some top-tier Footium Clubs have sold for over $30,000 – 160 times their initial purchase price – on secondary markets such as OpenSea. 

Notable Footium Club owners include major football media brand Copa90, Dutch Football star Nigel de Jong, international cricketers Ravi Bopara & Carlos Brathwaite, and Chris Smalling.

“The initial support for Footium from our early community has been tremendous, ” says Footium Co-founder James O’Leary. “We have already seen a group of community members creating a Metaverse Studio for producing shows around Footium, as well as hundreds of Footium Club Twitter accounts and even real-world kit sponsorships. To see the community championing our vision of an entirely new world of Football in the Metaverse is extremely encouraging for the team.”

Footium plans to formally launch in Q2 2022, following their ongoing public beta. The company is now running on the Ethereum testnet. 

“Each individual that owns a Footium club will be eligible to apply to participate in the Beta. Towards the later stages of the Beta we will expand participation so everyone who has a club and wants to test it can!” says the company on their official blog. 

Investor

BACKED is the human-centric European seed VC fund. Through their extensive founder support platform and active portfolio community, they’ve helped 90+ entrepreneurs successfully scale 50+ companies. 

Notable investments include Thought Machine, Sky Mavis, Hutch, Pollen, LabGenius, THIS, and Medal. 

“Blockchain is pioneering an economic revolution in gaming by enabling gamers to participate in the economics of the games they love,” explains Pascal Suhrcke, Investor at BACKED. 

He adds, “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.”

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