Written by: Alex Liu, Foresight News
Recently, a Web3 football fantasy game called Football.Fun quickly gained popularity after launching on Base. A certain KOL stated that he turned $100,000 into $200,000 in just 5 hours and then turned $200,000 into $300,000 in 11 hours, making a profit of $200,000 in less than a day.
With such a strong wealth effect, what exactly is Football.Fun?
Project Introduction
Football.Fun is positioned as an 'on-chain fantasy sports platform', fully deployed on Base, where players can own and freely trade football player tokens, build fantasy teams, and participate in competitions. Player cards can be traded on the AMM market like meme coins, and users can obtain player shares by opening player card packs, forming teams. The system will automatically calculate points based on real football matches and reward outstanding player holders after each weekly event (weekend and midweek matches).
The game currently involves top players from the five major European leagues (Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1), with a maximum issuance of 25 million shares per player. Mike Dudas, a partner at 6th Man Ventures, stated that Football.Fun is like 'adding liquidity to SoRare's player cards', 'this model directly ties to the interest of football fans, making it easy to attract fan participation.'
Launch Performance: Rapid Data Growth
Only two weeks after launch, Football.Fun's on-chain data shows explosive growth. According to on-chain data panel statistics, the current total locked value (TVL) of the platform exceeds $10 million, with over 10,000 participating wallet addresses, and the platform has accumulated approximately $1.5 million in transaction fees.
On August 24, the trading volume set a historical record of $14.85 million. Meanwhile, discussions on social media about the #FootballFun topic continue to rise, with many players posting screenshots of their earnings or discussing strategies.
The total market value of its platform's player tokens (i.e., the total market value of all players) has reached over $100 million, peaking at $150 million, currently falling back to $100 million. Players earn profits by trading shares of star players.
Team and Financing
The Football.Fun project was founded by Adam (@AdamFDF_), and currently, no more specific personal information about the founders has been disclosed.
On July 18, 2025, the project announced the completion of a $2 million seed round of financing, led by the sports investment firm 6th Man Ventures (6MV), with other investors including Devmons, Zee Prime Capital, Sfermion, and The Operating Group.
Mechanism Analysis
Football.fun's economic model is different from traditional game rewards, closer to on-chain trading speculation. The only native transaction currency in the game is 'Gold', which is stable anchored to Base chain USDC in professional mode, where 1 Gold is always equivalent to 1 USDC. Players buy shares of players using Gold, and shares can only be traded in the game market, not directly withdrawn; players who sell shares will receive Gold profits.
The platform charges a fixed 5% basic transaction fee for each transaction. In addition, to prevent excessive market impact from large single sales, the system will introduce a dynamic fee mechanism in the event of large sell-offs and trading surges (the tax rate increases when the sell-off volume is high, and additional fees during abnormal trading, with community feedback suggesting it could be as high as 25%).
According to official information, the initial sale of player packs raised $2.5 million, of which $2 million was used for liquidity and the remaining $500,000 for marketing. This funding provided initial liquidity for the game launch. Thus far, the project's main sources of income include funds invested by players when purchasing player packs and transaction fees generated from trading in the market. It is important to note that currently, Football.Fun does not have additional tokens or dividend designs; players' earnings essentially come from buying low and selling high: by purchasing player shares at low prices and selling them to other players after prices rise, thus earning a profit in Gold (USDC).
Like other 'meme coin' projects, the sustainability of this model is questioned. Currently, Football.fun's gameplay does not generate a mechanism for direct income return to players; its profitability relies on the continuous influx of new users and market activity. The project's income mainly comes from issuance and transaction fees, which raises concerns about whether this is healthy and sustainable in the long term.
How to Participate
To enter Football.fun, you need to prepare a wallet that supports the Base network (such as MetaMask) and connect to the game interface. The game offers two modes: 'Free Trial (FTP)' and 'Professional Edition (Pro)'.
The trial version is open to all users, and newcomers can earn 300 seasonal points and 3 player packs upon entry. After completing beginner tasks, they can also receive 1100 initial Gold without needing to invest real assets; the professional version requires players to pre-load USDC on the Base network to exchange for an equivalent amount of Gold.
After obtaining Gold, players can go to the 'Trade' page to purchase shares of any available players. When purchasing a player, the game will display information such as the player's team, position, age, future schedule, and historical performance. Each player comes with a contract for 4 matches upon purchase (i.e., they can participate in 4 rounds), and once the contract is exhausted, they need to renew it to continue earning points.
It is worth mentioning that the game currently does not require holding a separate 'platform token'; all transactions are completed using Gold (USDC). In other words, the participation threshold mainly involves spending USDC to purchase player shares (or earning Gold through tasks in the free mode), and then sharing rewards based on team performance in automatically held seasons. In short, anyone can start playing with zero barriers. However, if one wants to trade on a large scale in the secondary market and participate in rankings, a certain amount of capital and research into game conditions will be necessary.
Community Feedback and Controversies
Since its launch, Football.Fun has seen a high level of community enthusiasm, with many players sharing their strategies and earnings insights. Some community members have posted about how to seize new player issuance prices and turn a profit (new player trading). In discussions, players not only list potential players (such as PSG's rising star, European Ballon d'Or favorites, etc.) but also suggest that newcomers invest moderately and pay attention to the schedule.
However, this game has also sparked controversy. Observers believe that Football.Fun's profit model mainly relies on subsequent player participation. Some community users even jokingly refer to it as a 'football Ponzi scheme'. Critics point out that if the hype fades and new players dry up, the interests of later entrants may be harmed; moreover, since reward distribution is tied to shareholding and match performance, whether it is truly fair has also been widely debated.
The project officials have not provided a clear response to these doubts, only emphasizing the mechanism of the game itself. Overall, Football.Fun shows vitality in attracting new players, but there are concerns among players regarding the sustainability of the model. In this rapidly developing early stage, the market remains cautious about its future.
