Sport’s next economy will be built around participation, not attention

The launch of an official Safa national team fan token ahead of Bafana Bafana’s World Cup campaign is a sign of where sport may be heading. It shows how supporter communities are starting to be treated as active economic networks rather than audiences gathered around a match.

For decades, professional sport has been built around the monetisation of attention. Clubs and federations created the spectacle; supporters watched; broadcasters paid for access; sponsors bought visibility; and merchandise converted loyalty into revenue.

But attention is no longer enough on its own. Fans are no longer only watching. They create content, share opinions, influence purchases, follow players across platforms, attend events, join communities, and expect more personalised digital experiences. PwC notes that digital fan engagement platforms can help sports organisations connect tickets, streaming, commerce, loyalty, and fan data into more unified ecosystems.

“The most valuable asset a club owns may not be its stadium, players, or broadcast rights. It may be the community that has formed around it,” says Mark Diuga, CEO of Bitexen South Africa. “The question is whether sport is ready to start treating that community like the strategic asset it really is.”

That is where the idea of a fan economy comes in. It should not be reduced to a token, a rewards programme, or a clever app. Those may be useful tools inside the ecosystem, but they are not the point. Instead, digital infrastructure can help clubs organise participation more consistently, beyond episodic bursts around matchday, kit launches, fixtures, and campaigns.

For licensed local participants such as Bitexen South Africa, that shift also raises practical questions around governance, custody, compliance, and consumer protection.

As these fan economies mature, the question is no longer only how to create digital engagement but how to manage it responsibly. Utility-based fan tokens can enable supporters to access rewards, vote on club decisions, trade digital assets, and participate in global communities, but these experiences also depend on trusted infrastructure, responsible custody, clear administration, and consumer protection. “The future of tokenisation will not be decided by who can issue a token fastest,” says Diuga. “It will be shaped by who can build trusted, transparent, and sustainable ecosystems around communities.”

Bitexen’s experience across more than 80 tokenisation projects and collaborations with over 30 professional football clubs has given it a practical view of how fan tokens are evolving from short-term engagement tools into utility-based assets connected to rewards, voting, trading, and community participation.

The lesson, Diuga says, is not that technology is the hero. Digital infrastructure only matters when it gives supporters meaningful ways to participate.

“Participation is becoming a serious measure of sporting value. The clubs that understand that will build communities that stay active beyond matchday, not just audiences that gather when the lights are on,” says Diuga.

That has implications for sponsors as well. Traditional sponsorship was largely built around exposure. Digitally connected communities create space for brands to become more active participants through rewards, experiences, commerce, and engagement. Deloitte’s 2026 Global Sports Industry Outlook points to younger fans expecting more personalised, interconnected digital experiences, which should worry clubs still treating digital as a content calendar.

The World Cup will concentrate national attention around teams and supporters, as it always does. But what happens after the tournament, when the emotional peak fades and clubs or federations need to keep communities engaged?

The next opportunity in sport may not lie in selling more products to fans but in building infrastructure that allows fan communities to participate, connect, and create value long after the final whistle.