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Swiss Regulator Files Criminal Complaint Against FIFA’s NFT Ticket Platform

Prosecutors now assess Gespa’s finding that chance-based contests plus right-to-buy tokens meet Swiss definitions of lotteries or sports betting.

Overview

  • Gespa says collect.fifa.com offers unlicensed gambling services under Swiss law, leading the authority to refer the matter to public prosecutors.
  • The complaint singles out competitions that require monetary stakes with rewards distributed via random draws or similar chance-based mechanics.
  • Right-to-buy NFTs grant priority access to 2026 World Cup ticket allocations, with secondary prices reported from about $98 to roughly $6,000.
  • FIFA Collect remains operational with no public response from FIFA, as the platform runs on a bespoke Avalanche Layer-1 built with Modex after launching on Algorand in 2022.
  • Reported platform data cites roughly 2.26 million NFTs minted and about $52 million in volume in a market where only Sporttip and Jouez Sport hold nationwide sports-betting licenses.