The Hidden Costs of Phygital pucks: Are Fans being Scammed by Phygital
Eisgenoss, a Swiss company focused on promoting ice hockey, claims to be revolutionizing fan engagement with its innovative Fan-Puck. This phygital hockey puck, embedded with a chip, promises a range of exclusive benefits to its owners. The highest priced puck sells for $300,000. Is it worth this price?
The Fan-Puck: Overpriced Fan Engagement?
The Fan-Puck, which will be launched ahead of the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championships in Switzerland, is a hybrid product that combines physical and digital values. It's marketed as "phygital." Each of the three limited editions -- gold, silver and traditional rubber -- contains a chip which gives access to exclusive privileges such as early match tickets and VIP entry, meet-and greets with hockey stars and exclusive multimedia content. But at what price?
Editions and Pricing:
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Original (Rubber ): 300 CHF
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Silver: 3300 CHF
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Gold: 300 000 CHF
Are These Pucks a Marketing Stunt?
In order to create the Fan-Puck, the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation (SIHF), the gold merchant Philoro and the Web 3.0 specialist Vivents collaborated. This collaboration may seem impressive but the real issue is the value of these pucks. The concept of tying a digital NFT to a hockey puck and selling it for exorbitant prices appears to be more of a marketing gimmick, if not an outright scam. The puck has a minimal intrinsic value. This raises the question whether this is an innovation or a ploy to fleece hockey fans.
Is the Gold Edition Worth it?
The price of the "Gold Eisgenoss", a collectible made from 2.29 kilograms pure gold, is 300,000 CHF. However, considering the current gold price, the real value of this puck is approximately $175,099.15. Eisgenoss will pocket a profit of approximately $154,752.42 for each puck. Is the phygital value added to this puck worth such an enormous markup? zatap not. The promised features do not justify the price, which rivals that of high-end luxury items like supercars.
Collectible or Exploitative?
Silver and rubber versions of the Fan-Puck also have outrageous prices.
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Silver Edition: 3,300 CHF for 1 kilogram of silver, which is worth approximately $956. Eisgenoss makes a profit of approximately $2,672.77. They question the price of digital benefits.
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Rubber edition: 300 CHF is charged for a rubber puck which only allows access to pre-sale tickets. This amount seems excessive for the minimal digital benefits.
Transparency, Value and Quality are Questionable
Eisgenoss says that a portion from the proceeds of sales will be used to support the development and training of young Swiss hockey players. However, the lack of transparency regarding the exact percentage raises doubts. They mention "a portion," which could be anything from 10% to less than 1%, further adding to the skepticism.
Promises vs. Reality
The Fan-Puck promises several exclusive benefits, but these claims lack clarity:
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Access to Pre-Sale Tickets: Only provides access to tickets for pre-sale, but not the actual tickets.
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VIP Experiences: Vague promises of exclusive VIP entries and behind-the-scenes tours.
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Meet-and-Greets: Opportunities to meet hockey stars, but with no concrete details.
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Signed merchandise: Access autographed items at a cost.
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Multimedia content: Exclusive Content, but it is unclear whether this exclusive content is truly exclusive or if the early access version of content.
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Fan Voting: Participation in decisions, but how impactful is this really?
The ambiguity and potential additional costs associated with these features make the investment in a Fan-Puck highly questionable.
Conclusion
Eisgenoss and Vivents' current implementation of phygital technologies is more about exploiting the fans than delivering real value. These pucks are expensive, and the vague promises, lack of transparency, and exorbitant price point suggest this is a marketing stunt rather than an innovation. Fans deserve better than overpriced collectibles with questionable benefits.
_The article that inspired this critique is from ZATAP. They are a leader in phygital technologies.
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