Lionel Messi Contributes $21 Million to Support Web3 Soccer Game Company Matchday

The FIFA-partnered company intends to create Web3 games with the help of Lionel Messi, a star player in the world of professional soccer.

Matchday, a Web3 gaming startup focused on soccer, revealed today that it has secured $21 million in seed funding to create a collection of games, with Lionel Messi's venture capital company on board.

The startup received funding from Messi's Play Time company, as well as Courtside Ventures, Greylock, HackVC, Capricorn Investment Group, and Horizons Ventures. Alexia Putellas, a Spanish soccer player, is Matchday's initial global ambassador.
The legendary soccer player, who currently competes for Paris Saint-Germain F.C. and most recently guided Argentina to the 2022 FIFA World Cup victory, has already made a number of moves in the NFT industry.

Messi invested in the well-known NFT fantasy soccer game Sorare and struck a $20 million sponsorship contract with the fan token platform Socios. He is a brand ambassador for both. Also, he has made available his own official NFT collectibles via the Ethernity Chain system.

FIFA, the organization in charge of organizing the World Cup, and the FIFPRO players association have granted Matchday an official license. Derrick Ko, co-founder and CEO of Matchday, said in a statement that the games would be tailored for "casual" players.

Ko stated, "We are creating for an underserved audience in the football community.

Sebastien de Halleux, the chief gaming officer at Matchday, was once an executive at the major game developer Electronic Arts (EA), where he worked on the firm's own FIFA game series and the Madden NFT franchise.

De Halleux stated in a statement, "Our games will be accessible to all players and focused on actual ownership of digital things that will be a source of pride for all players.

Such "digital commodities" in Web3 gaming are frequently registered on-chain as NFTs, which are distinctive blockchain tokens that denote ownership over digital assets like in-game characters, skins, or items. Before to the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Matchday produced a time-limited mini-game and distributed 2 million NFT player cards to around 600,000 users.

Giants in soccer have already made significant inroads into Web3. In 2021, Sorare raised $680 million at a valuation of $4.3 billion and amassed hundreds of team and league licenses in addition to branching out into other sports. FIFA introduced an NFT platform on Algorand last fall, and some teams have produced Socios fan tokens, which occasionally change in value depending on how well they play on the field.