English Premier League football club Manchester City has agreed a new partnership with South Korean sports service developer Superbloke and has extended its deal with Hong Kong-based direct selling company QNET.
Terms of the deals were not disclosed, but Superbloke will become City’s official blockchain-based gacha partner in Korea, Japan and South East Asia. Gacha games seek to adapt the capsule-toy vending machine game for the digital environment.
Superbloke will incorporate City players into ‘FC Superstars’. The online game allows users to build a digital team by collecting, training and growing specially designed Manchester City digital player cards using real-life match stats and in-game training.
Damian Willoughby, senior vice-president of partnerships for Manchester City’s parent company City Football Group, said: “This new partnership with Superbloke marks another exciting milestone in City’s growing relationship with gaming and will create unique experiences for fans to engage with the club through digital platforms.”
Superbloke chief strategy officer Nak-Hyoung Kim added: “Superbloke has a vision to use blockchain technology to help football fans so that they can permanently own players’ tokens they have collected. We expect that this partnership with Manchester City will be the first step to get closer to our vision.”
Meanwhile, City’s extended partnership with QNET will take the relationship between the two parties to 10 years.
QNET will continue as City’s official direct selling partner for both its men’s and women’s teams. The partnership marked a significant milestone in May 2018 when City made QNET the first sleeve partner in the Women’s Super League.
Throughout the next phase of the partnership QNET will continue to provide City-led football clinics to communities around the world, as well as engaging with consumers and distributors through the relationship.
QNET’s chief executive, Malou Caluza, said: “Through this partnership, we’ve had the opportunity to send children from low income families from different parts of the world to Manchester, for football training camps and English language schools, which has been truly life changing for many of these kids.
“We hope to continue working together and finding new innovative ways to engage with and reach out to our fans.”