Through this partnership, Rakuten customers in Spain, UK and Germany can use Rakuten points to redeem Fan Tokens - collectible, tradable digital assets that provide owners with benefits including voting rights, VIP rewards, club & sponsor promotions, AR-enabled features and super-fan recognition on Socios.com.

Rakuten has been constantly growing its footprint in Europe and today is offering a variety of services to consumers across the region, including shopping, communications and digital content – available through Rakuten.de, Rakuten.es and Rakuten.co.uk. Centre of this diverse portfolio are Rakuten Points, connecting Rakuten’s services with partnerships across retail and experiences as well as global brands. Members can earn points through everyday shopping and redeem them in a wide variety of ways – including movies, gift cards, e-books and more.

Aiming to constantly add further depth of service, enhanced perks and additional partners Rakuten is now offering Fan Tokens for FC Barcelona ($BAR), Paris Saint-Germain ($PSG), Juventus ($JUV), Atlético de Madrid ($ATM), AS Roma ($ASR), Galatasaray ($GAL) and AC Milan ($ACM) as part of its ecosystem. FC Barcelona is also a Main Global Partner of Rakuten.

More Fan Tokens from Chiliz 24-strong roster of partners, which also includes the likes of Manchester City, will be added to the offering and the partnership is set to expand into additional markets in Europe and worldwide in the future.

Chiliz and Rakuten will also explore further integrations, with a view to creating a global space where Rakuten and Socios.com users can interface with both platforms freely. Chiliz will also work with the Rakuten blockchain lab, with Rakuten to become an official node validator for the Chiliz $CHZ blockchain.

The digital collectibles market is currently booming. CoinMarketCap, the world’s most referenced price tracking website for digital assets, has created a dedicated page for Fan Tokens minted on the Chiliz blockchain. The total Fan Token market cap recently exceeded $400M.

Chiliz $CHZ is a leading crypto-unicorn ecosystem with 100+ employees worldwide. The company has major global expansion plans for 2021 and will increase their existing presence in Europe while targeting many more Fan Token launches in the UK, Asia and South America. Chiliz announced a $50M expansion into the US to target launches with the 5 major US sports leagues in early March. Chiliz has multiple office locations around the world and will open new European and US headquarters in Madrid and New York in 2021.

Cédric Dufour, Managing Director Open E-Commerce for Rakuten Europe said: “Our goal is to create an innovative, customer-centric membership program unlike any other in the region. Key to this is the right mix of great value, unique offers and exclusive features for consumers.

Thanks to the partnership with Chiliz and Socios.com, we are now the only loyalty program to integrate the possibility to redeem points for tokens – a huge benefit for Rakuten customers and a big step towards making our diversity a game changing strength in the industry.”

Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of Chiliz and Socios.com said: “Rakuten is a global powerhouse in fintech and online commerce and we are very excited by the huge potential this new partnership offers us.

“We’ve started by adding seven Fan Tokens from some of the biggest sporting brands in the world to the Rakuten open e-commerce ecosystem.

“I’m looking forward to watching this innovative partnership evolve further as we add more Fan Tokens and explore deeper end-to-end integrations with Rakuten, boosting our mission to build a multi-billion dollar digital sports ecosystem.”