What if managing a virtual football club could give it lasting vitality? That’s the goal of Footium, a multiplayer sports management game powered by blockchain technology and NFT ownership.
When closed beta exits in August 2024, the game is ready to challenge established favourites in the football management genre, creating a game with long-term appeal, and what started as a university hackathon project has grown into a thriving community of over 1,000 players, proving the need for a new approach and deeper fan engagement.
Looking to shake up its category, this web3 sports management sim offers a more social environment, brings the fun of online competitions, and features a rewards system to keep players coming back.
Footium was founded in June 2020 by Jordan Lord (CTO) and James O'Leary (COO), who began developing the game during a hackathon, with George Benton (CEO) joining in 2021, and today the team is poised to dominate the football management space by offering better in-game incentives, digital ownership and a community-driven experience where virtual football club owners can compete for league dominance.
In this way, Footium creates a virtual arena where the history of each club is recorded on the blockchain, raising the stakes for players. When playing Footium, you will know that your every decision will affect the long-term legacy of the club and your standing among other players.
Footium’s origin story
Footium’s history dates back to late 2016, when Benton (currently the company’s CEO and co-founder) was a college student with a keen interest in finance and technology, and his journey into the world of cryptocurrency began when he joined the university’s investment club and chose to focus on Bitcoin trading in a virtual portfolio.
This initial exposure to cryptocurrency sparked Benton’s passion, which also determined his career trajectory. He immersed himself in the world of cryptocurrency and founded the first cryptocurrency club at the University of Leeds in 2017. In the following years, Benton gained valuable experience through internships at various cryptocurrency companies and worked at a web3 accelerator, where he hosted hackathons and managed operations.
“It’s been so fun to watch the cryptocurrency space evolve from the crazy days of ICOs (initial coin offerings) to the truly usable products of today, and I’m proud to be a part of this moment where blockchain is powering the next era of gaming,” said Benton.
At the time, Benton and his co-founders shared a common dissatisfaction with existing football management games, arguing that single-player games had become predictable and easy to exploit, while multiplayer versions often lacked proper incentives and fair play, often forcing players to play against stronger opponents.
Lord, who had been developing football simulations in his spare time for years, teamed up with O'Leary and Benton to begin developing a game to address these issues, and as the team received seed funding in March 2022, Footium evolved into a full-time endeavor.
“There simply isn’t a clean solution to these problems in football management games,” Benton said. “In our case, we found that most of these issues could be solved by using blockchain to add real incentives and transparency into these games, rather than just a monetary device.”
Footium leverages the Arbitrum blockchain to generate verifiable results for game outcomes and transactions and create a clear record of all ownable elements in the game, while reducing the opportunity for gameplay exploitation and creating a transparent rewards system for players.
Footium lets players become managers
Footium is a blockchain-based multiplayer football management game that allows players to own and manage their own virtual football club, similar to the Football Manager series, but the ownership of clubs and players is protected on-chain. The game is designed to closely reflect the real-world football club ecosystem, including player transfers, youth training, player retirements and competitive league structures.
Players compete across eight tiers with the goal of advancing to higher tiers through outstanding performance, similar to the competitive league tier system of the English football pyramid, with each season consisting of 22 matches played over three weeks, preceded by a pre-season that allows team owners to strategize, make transfers on OpenSea, and sign academy players before the start of the tournament.
At the start of each match, a 2D visualiser will be displayed for key match events such as shots, goals and free kicks, and during matches there will be a dynamic commentary stream providing further detail about the on-pitch action, adding texture and action to this strategy simulation game, where players can manage their team in real time during each 30-minute match, dictating plays and lineup changes in their bid for victory.
As a club owner, players can recruit procedurally generated players to their squad and recruit new players through the club's youth academy feature, set their own squad to play against opponents, invest money in training their own players, exchange in-game players with other Footium club owners on OpenSea, and as each player ages during each game season, players can bid farewell to them when they eventually retire.
One of Footium’s unique selling points to players is the intellectual property of the in-game clubs. Rather than licensing existing teams, Footium allows players to create their own intellectual property (IP) with their own clubs and develop completely unique virtual brands with their own creations.
This approach has fostered a rather creative player base, as Footium players are designing custom physical merchandise, redesigning club crests, using AI tools to craft team chants, and even minting NFT tickets to commemorate important matches – all based around in-game clubs using player-created IP.
Footium's economic simulation requires savvy football strategy
Fans can experience what it’s like to be a real-life football club owner in Footium, as Footium’s gameplay allows players to turn 2D players into digital items that can be bought and sold. Its setting simulates a team management economy and forces players to make strategic decisions from the outset. Each club in Footium is represented by an NFT, which gives the owner access to the game and the ability to manage the team.
The in-game player lifecycle in Footium is also similar to real-world football: each season, clubs can randomly select up to five rookies from their youth academies, and managers can then choose to mint these rookies into NFTs and pay an ETH fee to include them in the active lineup.
Players age with each passing season until they eventually retire at age 32, at which point they will no longer play but will still be preserved as collectible NFTs.
"The goal is to have a system that is fair and still closely reflects the realities of managing a football club," Benton said, adding that while Argentina forward Lionel Messi is "still struggling at his age", retired players would accelerate the game's economics.
“Players will always need to effectively manage their teams from season to season to remain competitive,” Benton explained.
Footium recently introduced a rarity system for players, with four tiers: Common, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Rare players have greater potential but still require proper training and management to reach peak performance, which adds depth to the player market and team building strategy.
The game's economy is designed to be self-sustaining and reward skilled managers, with the prize pool funded by training new players and exchanging fees from existing players, with Benton saying 90% of those fees are redistributed to players as rewards for winning leagues, with the remaining 10% going to the company as revenue.
This model ensures that successful managers are rewarded while also providing the company with a sustainable business model, with the Footium team stating that the game has already amassed over 45 ETH in prize money during the recent Beta season, which will be distributed to Footium players over the next few seasons.
What's next for Footium fans?
Currently, there are only 3,060 clubs available for players to collect and run, but as the player base grows, the team plans to expand the number of clubs by adding new divisions at the bottom of the league pyramid.
As Footium winds down from its recent closed beta, the team is focusing on growing its player base and improving the gaming experience, which is already showing good momentum, with Benton saying Footium’s retention rate is in the top 2% when compared to in-app spending users in leading mobile games.
Meanwhile, in the short term, Footium is preparing to fully roll out its rewards system when the first season arrives, which will go live in October 2024. In addition, the Footium team is looking to tap into the wider ecosystem of football gamers who have been playing games such as Football Manager or FIFA Ultimate Team.
"I firmly believe we have the right model of social, gaming, rewards and ownership for the mass market," said Benton. "The road to developing Footium has been challenging as we have had to overcome new obstacles, but seeing how much players enjoy the game has been extremely encouraging for the entire Footium team."
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