A new decentralized finance (DeFi) model targets a persistent problem facing football clubs: short-term liquidity deficits caused by uneven cash flows from media and commercial contracts.
The Decentral protocol, hosted on the Chiliz blockchain, allows clubs and sports organizations to obtain stable liquidity by tokenizing future claims, such as broadcast rights, and using them as on-chain collateral, according to an email announcement shared with CoinDesk on Monday.
Investors provide capital to decentralized pools, while clubs benefit from faster access to funding without relying on banks or specialist funds which often charge high fees and impose onerous administrative requirements.
Decentral will hold an initial $1 million liquidity pool in the stablecoin USDC, with a 90-day lock-up period and an expected APY of 12%, Chiliz said in Monday’s announcement.
When clubs receive a payment from the sponsor, broadcaster, etc., this is paid into Decentral’s smart contract, allowing liquidity providers to withdraw their capital along with any accumulated returns.
“The key point is that the return is settled on-chain from a pre-existing contractual revenue stream, rather than being generated through trading or other activities,” a Decentral spokesperson told CoinDesk in a Telegram message.
Better access to capital
This approach addresses a long-standing problem in sports funding.
Clubs often hold valuable long-term contracts but struggle to meet their day-to-day funding needs, particularly outside of football’s most elite clubs. By converting this future revenue into on-chain real-world assets (RWA), the model could enable faster settlement, improved transparency, and global access to capital.
RWA tokenization 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 this development reflects the move of “SportFi” from concept to practical utility, with blockchain infrastructure being used to finance the core mechanics of the sports economy.
Chiliz is one of SportFi’s flagship projects, bridging the gap between traditional sports business models and blockchain technology. The most widespread use case in this sector has always been the issuance of fan tokens, cryptocurrencies that allow their holders to speculate on the fortunes of a team while having access to exclusive rewards and experiences.
UPDATE (December 15, 3:30 p.m. UTC): Adds details on the mechanics of the Decentral protocol and a quote from the spokesperson.
