Football academies in Africa often recognized as a unique pathway to opportunity for youth facing social and economic hardships.
Their influence is met with mixed reviews. The Atlantic notes, “The academies also form one small part of a global debate on the value and ethics of private versus public education—a debate that’s playing out in the U.S. but perhaps even more dramatically in many African countries—and raise questions about who their programs benefit most.”
Poland-based blockchain startup and football academy operator Bitcademy seeks to leverage the emerging technology to uplift local economies and transform communities, reports Forbes.
Talented, young athletes in many African countries currently face barriers to becoming professional football players. Wealth in the sport is highly concentrated in Europe, where large corporate entities and massive sponsorship deals prevail, overlooking promising talent elsewhere.
"The main idea is to decentralize football - allow football fans to connect directly with young athletes. They sponsor them, they help them achieve professional careers and they can participate in the profit from their contracts."
Bitcademy, which plans to hold its ICO this quarter, has turned its attention to talent in Africa and Asia and is using blockchain technology to enable direct player investment so that economically disadvantaged football players can put their best foot forward in the beautiful game.
In addition to building brick-and-mortar educational academies, the blockchain startup has an AI Talent Prediction Algorithm in the pipeline for investors to follow player development and financially back the next great soccer talents.
Forbes recently spoke with Bitcademy CEO Tomasz Kzrystek, who shared his vision for this social impact project:
"Bitcademy is a very unconventional business. It combines high tech & blockchain with traditional football academies. Our vision is to have a few solid revenue streams that you can add or cut like LEGO blocks depending on market situation.
“The main idea is to decentralize football - allow football fans to connect directly with young athletes. They sponsor them, they help them achieve professional careers and they can participate in the profit from their contracts.”