Croatia football federation flashes crypto rewards for fans using its official store app

The Croatian Soccer Federation (HNS) has launched a brand new loyalty program that rewards followers with cryptocurrency by means of its official purchasing app, making Croatia the primary nationwide soccer staff to embed blockchain rewards instantly into its fan engagement system.

HNS launched a public assertion on Tuesday in collaboration with blockchain firm Kadena, which joined forces in February this 12 months. The multi-year partnership extends to main world soccer tournaments, together with the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 UEFA Euro Cup.

The brand new characteristic went stay on Tuesday, simply two days earlier than Croatia’s World Cup qualifier towards the Czech Republic on October 9 and forward of the following match towards Gibraltar on October 12. In accordance with the federation, the timing of the product’s debut is aimed toward rising fan pleasure as Croatia qualifies for the 2026 World Cup.

HNS Official Retailer app rewards go stay

Underneath the brand new system, followers who make purchases by means of the HNS Official Retailer app, similar to jerseys, scarves or different merchandise, will robotically obtain 1% of their spend again in VATRENI tokens.

The tokens, issued on Kadena’s blockchain community, may be redeemed for staff merchandise and VIP experiences. Future redemption choices, similar to match tickets, are anticipated to be added later, the federation stated.

Every collaborating fan will even have a digital pockets linked to their app account, the place they’ll earn, obtain and retailer rewards with out having to cope with the technical facets that crypto generally requires.

The VATRENI token was first launched as an ERC-20 asset on the Polygon community, however has since migrated to Kadena’s blockchain by way of the Kinesis Bridge. Kadena’s expertise, identified for its scalable Proof-of-Work structure known as Chainweb, presents excessive transaction throughput at minimal prices.

The blockchain platform helps each its native good contract language, Pact, and Ethereum Digital Machine (EVM) compatibility at the moment within the testnet, to make improvement accessible to mainstream purposes.

“The purpose of the VATRENI token is to push the boundaries of conventional fan engagement and introduce a forward-looking expertise,” stated Joel Woodman, Kadena’s Head of Partnerships. “We’re working with our companions to combine new expertise into the Croatian Soccer Federation ecosystem, together with AI instruments, digital experiences and personalised activations.”

The Croatia nationwide staff is dedicated to fan engagement by means of digital tokens

Through the announcement of the Kadena partnership in February, HNS President Marijan Kustić stated that the federation is responding to the best way fan habits is trending in direction of cryptocurrencies.

“The mission of HNS is to make sure the event of Croatian soccer for the longer term, consistent with traits not solely in sport, but additionally in society as an entire. Cryptocurrencies and synthetic intelligence have develop into a part of on a regular basis life, so we’re preserving tempo with that improvement by means of our VATRENI challenge.”

The HNS Official Retailer app may be downloaded from each the Apple App Retailer and Google Play. As soon as logged in, followers can browse official merchandise and robotically obtain crypto rewards for purchases with none extra setup. Kadena’s system processes the blockchain transactions, so customers do not want any prior crypto expertise to take part.

The partnership additionally contains promotional components similar to ticket giveaways and reward swimming pools for app customers. The federation expects the initiative to extend app downloads within the coming months, with a whole bunch of hundreds of wallets anticipated to be created earlier than the following World Cup is held in Canada, Mexico and america subsequent 12 months.

In accordance with statistics from ESPN, Croatia leads Group L of the UEFA World Cup Qualifiers after successful all 4 matches towards Montenegro, the Faroe Islands, the Czech Republic and Gibraltar.

Croatia is amongst a small however rising variety of soccer organizations experimenting with blockchain-based fan applications. A number of European golf equipment have launched fan tokens in recent times, though HNS is the primary nationwide staff to combine crypto rewards instantly into its official buying and selling platform.

The Paris Saint-Germain fan token ($PSG) caught the eye of soccer followers throughout the 2024-2025 season, particularly after the membership received a treble, together with the UEFA Champions League trophy.