London, UK & Brøndby, Denmark, 13 May 2026 — The Danish Ice Hockey Federation (DIU) has entered a partnership with Concordium, appointing the company as the Official AI Partner of the national team. The collaboration is set to debut at the 2026 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Switzerland.
At the core of the agreement are two initiatives developed on top of Concordium’s AI infrastructure. A Verified Fan Programme will test a privacy-preserving approach to fan engagement, using zero-knowledge proofs to enable verification without exposing personal data. In parallel, an agentic commerce pilot will explore how verified AI agents can operate at scale to support fan-facing interactions and transactions.
The initiatives extend Concordium’s broader efforts in AI-enabled payments, including its recent work around the x402 agentic payments protocol.
“Agents transacting at scale need a verified identity they can carry and settlement rails they can trust,” said Varun Kabra, Chief Growth Officer at Concordium. “The infrastructure for that already exists. What it has lacked is legibility, a place where mainstream audiences can see it working. We are very excited to partner with the Danish Ice Hockey team to build together a solution where AI can deliver a much superior fan experience.”
DIU CEO Michael Dupont said the partnership was approached as a development-focused collaboration rather than a traditional sponsorship.
“We approached this the way we approach every serious collaboration, starting with what we could build together, not what would go on the jersey,” said Michael Dupont, CEO of Danmarks Ishockey Union. “Concordium is a Swiss-built and regulatory-grade AI infrastructure. The programmes planned over the course of the partnership are the kind of work that fits how Danish hockey wants to be seen.”
Under the terms of the deal, Concordium will receive branding placement on the Danish national team’s helmets and jerseys, alongside category exclusivity in digital assets throughout the partnership period. The financial terms are structured entirely in CCD, Concordium’s native token, making it the first national team agreement to be both settled and locked in a protocol-native asset. The payment was executed on-chain at signing, with a 12-month lock-up enforced at the protocol level and held under DIU’s self-custody.
The Danish national team’s participation in the 2026 World Championship will reach audiences across key international markets, including Sweden, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and the United States, with coverage provided by broadcasters such as Viaplay, ZDF, ARD, TSN, and ESPN. The previous tournament in 2025 drew a cumulative live television audience of 215 million and generated 25.6 billion event impressions across 155 territories.
