Cryptocurrency has taken the world by storm over the past few years and now two former A-League Men players are looking to give it a football spin with First 11.
Kaz Patafta and Zac Anderson are the co-founders of the unique business model that is aiming to become a 'digital marketplace for football enthusiasts'.
The platform, which launches on December 4 with an app and crypto token, will be a combination of real-world football news, games, fantasy competitions and NFT collections of clubs and players.
While former Young Socceroo Patafta walked away from a promising playing career to create a successful law firm, the 33-year-old remains connected to the round ball and sees a chance to combine two powerful industries with F11.
"I've been personally advising in the blockchain space for a little bit now through the law firm and we saw a bit of a gap in the market to launch our own token platform to primarily focus on Asia Pacific and the huge market in terms of footballer players and clubs in the region," Patafta told Sporting News.
"I've worked with a number of European clubs over the past few years and they've been approached quite significantly with a lot of different opportunities in the blockchain space and how that can be implemented in a football environment. So that really turned on the light bulb.
"There's been a really solid growth in fan tokens, particularly around the big clubs, and we're trying to take that a little bit further into the NFT so that professional players and clubs can launch their own collections.
"But we also want to have a very integrated platform that allows people to, even if they're not into crypto, still use the app to just to follow the team's live scores.
"It's not just about business opportunities, it is really about bringing passions together and through every blockchain transaction a portion of the fees will go to a foundation to support developing countries and their football development."
We’re finally launching this Saturday 4th Dec $F11 token https://t.co/U5U5RwGAwC ⚽️🚀
— Kaz Patafta (@kaz_patafta) November 30, 2021
Alongside Anderson, who still plays competitively for Queensland NPL club Olympic FC and is wrapping up an MBA, Patafta has spent over 12 months turning this crypto idea into a reality.
Having helped a number of football clubs wrap their head around the crypto space, he believes a combination of the two will provide new opportunities for fan engagement and growth moving forward.
"I think it's going to open a lot of doors in terms of how close fans and stakeholders can become to their clubs," Patafta said.
"There's some unlimited possibility in terms of where this whole 'metaverse' push is going and I think football is going to be a big part of that.
"And I think that for traditional fans following teams it's going to get to the point where you can actually be a football manager in this sort of a metaverse world and even create your own player and avatar which is fascinating.
"But then again, it also just creates the ability to reach out to a global fan base in a very effective way."