Not too many years ago, sports betting began to move away from the traditional retail environment and into the personal digital space, and the pace of change accelerated rapidly.

First it was mobile sports betting through dedicated apps, then fantasy sports and eSports betting, and more recently, cryptocurrency betting. New ideas and new companies keep popping up, and it's getting harder and harder to foresee what might be next.

One fairly recent arrival that is gaining traction is the fan token, a product that should be of great interest to the sports betting industry. Supporter/fan/fan tokens offer fans digital engagement with their favorite sports teams via the blockchain.

The sales pitch is that token holders benefit from a closer association with the team in question, and also receive a range of benefits and rewards.

Tokens are, in effect, another form of cryptocurrency, as they can be traded, as their value can fluctuate. The value provided is not financial and never will be. The value has to do with the experience and the connection made between the fan and the club.

In fact, I was thinking of ideas to monetize non-playing fans of your poker league teams.

Some of the modalities allow fans to have an access to a mobile app, where they can vote on minor decisions, such as the name of a training facility or playlists for in-stadium entertainment.

This concept might be easy to dismiss as a far-fetched dream.

From the point of view of the teams themselves, the incentive is economic, "Of course this is driven by money, sports teams need to pay players. Players are getting more and more expensive, so more and more revenue is needed. We are a new source of revenue." argued Dreyfus, CEO of Partners, a company dedicated to tokenizing fans.

Only a fraction of the fans watch the teams play live

Partner teams benefit from a revenue share when tokens/tokens are first sold or subsequently exchanged and, with the volume of fans out there, this could become a huge source of revenue. Premier League soccer clubs, for example, have tens of millions of fans worldwide and yet only a small proportion of them will ever see their team play live.

On the face of it, fan tokens are an opportunity for these millions of supporters to not only feel engaged with the team, but also to participate in real activities.

Just as we've seen the once "new kids on the block" DraftKings and FanDuel smartly partner and evolve into sports betting giants, we should keep an eye on fan tokens, and see where their roadmap takes us.