Gespa, the Swiss lottery and gambling authority, has formally filed a criminal complaint regarding FIFA Collect, the international football body’s NFT collecting platform ($0.00), the organization announced on Friday (17).
The authority had begun an initial review and preliminary investigation into FIFA Collect and its offerings – such as ‘right-to-buy’ NFTs for tickets – in early October, telling Decrypt that it “could not rule out” whether the platform’s offering would be relevant to Swiss gambling regulation.
After further investigation, she has now reported the collection platform to the relevant authorities.
“During the investigation, suspicions were confirmed that the website collect.fifa.com offers gambling services that are not licensed in Switzerland and are therefore illegal,” Gespa said in a written statement. “Gespa is obliged to inform the competent authorities of criminal proceedings if it becomes aware of violations of the federal gambling law.”
According to the regulator, participation in some competitions on the platform that offer monetary benefits is only possible “by means of a cash bet”, where rewards are provided through a random draw or similar procedures.
“From the point of view of gambling law, the offers in question are part lotteries and part sports betting (right of finality),” he said.
Further information about the criminal complaint and the procedure is not being shared at this time, Manuel Richard, director of Gespa, told Decrypt.
The ‘ultimate right’ the authority is referring to is a new type of collectible offered by FIFA called the ‘right to buy’ (RTB). This collectible designation offers NFT holders the opportunity to purchase a specific series of tickets for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will take place in North America.
RTB collectibles, which guarantee the user the opportunity to skip the general queue of potential buyers, can be purchased or revealed through collection packs on the platform, or purchased on the secondary market.
On the secondary market, these collectibles can range from approximately $98 for the right to purchase tickets to a group round in Houston to $6,000 for the right to purchase tickets to the opening match at Estadio Azteca in Mexico.
FIFA sells tickets for the world’s largest multi-stage football sporting event. The organization recently announced that it has sold more than 1 million tickets through pre-sales at Visa.
The football organization’s blockchain collection platform was originally developed on Algorand in 2022, but earlier this year FIFA announced it was moving away from the proof-of-stake blockchain. Instead, FIFA opted to create its own premier Avalanche network to support the platform.
A FIFA representative did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.
*Translated and edited with permission from Decrypt.
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