France: basketball club owned by Counterpointe Sports Group (USA) to sell its shares as tokens

Counterpointe Sports Group (CSG), majority shareholder of Elan Béarnais Pau-Lacq-Orthez (Betclic Elite) since 2021, is to sell the club's shares in the form of tokens from 26/04/2022, "a world first for a professional sports club," announced the American fund on 20/04/2022. Around 40% of the club's capital will be sold, according to the French daily newspaper Le Figaro.

"CSG has worked with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) over the past nine months to complete this exceptional sale. This is the first time that a professional sports team will allow its fans and players to hold a stake in the club. Token buyers will receive a seat on the club's board of directors, which will be decided by a vote of all token holders. Token holders will have one vote per token, just like holders of ordinary shares," explained CSG, which bought the club from the city of Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques, FRA) for €800,000 on 21/06/2021.

"Unlike the tokens already circulating in the sports world, which are fan tokens, the Pau Basketball Tokens (PBT) will be so-called STO (security token offering) tokens…