A new decentralized finance (DeFi) model is targeting a persistent problem facing football clubs: short-term liquidity gaps caused by uneven cash flows from media and commercial contracts.
The decentralized protocol, hosted on the Chiliz blockchain, enables clubs and sports organizations to raise stablecoin liquidity by tokenizing future receivables, such as broadcasting rights, and using them as onchain collateral, according to an email announcement shared with CoinDesk on Monday.
Investors provide capital to decentralized pools, while clubs gain faster access to funding without relying on banks or specialized funds that often charge high fees and impose heavy administrative requirements.
Decentral will have an initial liquidity pool of $1 million in USDC stablecoin, with a 90-day lock-up period and an expected 12% APY, Chiliz said in Monday’s announcement.
Better access to capital
The approach speaks to a long-standing pain point in sports funding.
Clubs often have valuable long-term contracts but struggle to bridge day-to-day funding needs, especially outside the game’s most elite clubs. By converting these future revenues into real-world assets (RWAs) on-chain, the model can enable faster settlement, improved transparency and global access to capital.
Tokenization of RWAs refers to the process of representing traditional financial assets, such as stocks and bonds, as digital tokens that can be bought, sold and traded on blockchains.
Alex Dreyfus, founder of Chiliz, said the development reflects “SportFi’s” shift from concept to practical utility, as blockchain infrastructure is used to fund the core mechanics of the sports economy.
Chiliz is one of the leading projects in SportFi, bridging traditional sports business models and blockchain technology. The most widespread use in this sector has historically been the issuance of fan tokens – cryptocurrencies that allow holders to speculate on a team’s fortunes while also gaining access to exclusive rewards and experiences.
