Continuing with our article on Cypto Adoption, we will focus on some aspects related to sports, mainly football, aiming to bring some light on cryptoassets. It is very well known that many sports stars elect to be partially paid in cryptocurrencies (especially in the NBA and NFL) or that Messi received PSG Fan Token as part of his new contract.
Besides the great marketing move behind Messi’s contract (pushing PSG token price up and providing many benefits to the club, absorbing costs with a “currency” issued by themselves), this initiative is likely to be replicated by other clubs. There is an increasing number of teams that use these Fan Tokens platforms to offer their fans to pre-buy these coins in exchange for future benefits in the purchase of jerseys, tickets, events and all sort of merchandising goods or just for storage purposes. The main startups behind this initiative are Chiliz, Socios.com (further information to follow) and Sorare.
Sorare has a “twist” represented by the possibility to play fantasy football with virtual exchangeable cards. Some of these cards are “unique” (NFT, with sales estimated in USD 150 million in 2021) with great benefits for platform competition. If you like this type of games and/or sports you can enter the link above. This initiative has such a potential that it raised a funding round led by Softbank of USD 680 million with investments made by popular stars such as Azpilicueta, Piqué, Ferdinand, Schurrle and Griezmann, as reported by Palco23.
Going back to real sports, the Inter Miami (co-owned by David Beckham) partnered with a cryptocurrencies startup as main sponsor, as reported by Marketing Registrado.
Gonzalo Higuaín’s team jerseys will don the XBTO logo and other jersey partnerships were closed with many MLS football stars. The club’s CEO informed that “XBTO will be fully integrated across Inter Miami’s platforms beyond the jersey. Together we will raise awareness and build credibility, and further accelerate the social benefits of cryptocurrency through strategic initiatives as XBTO continues to redefine the next era of finance.”
In Europe, the PSV (first division team of the Dutch League) has announced that part of his value reserve is held in Bitcoin as well as its partnership with Anycoin Direct in a two-season deal. As reported by BitCoin Magazine, the total sponsorship amount was paid in BTC and the club said that they consider cryptocurrencies as the best-performing asset in the long-term, reason why they custody their BTC in their own wallets and are not intended for sale. Considering this club was founded 108 years ago, it is a quite innovative move.
Closer to Argentina, the traditional Brazilian team, Flamengo, has also launched its own fan token. As reported in this article, Atlético Mineiro and Corinthians are on the digital market as well. The Flamengo estimates a profit of R$ 145 million until 2025.
Locally, there are several teams –apparently traditional ones- involved in this innovative technology. From Club Atlético Independiente launching its fan token ($CAI, read release), the rumors on the Argentine Selection launching its own token ($ARG) through Huracán (that partnered with an exchange as main sponsor intending to pay part of their players’ salaries in cryptocurrencies, as reported by BAE Negocios). DeCrypto partnership with the “Baloon” (as Huracán is known) is an ambitious alliance that includes to carry the logo stamp on the front of the club’s jerseys, in the stadium’s notice board, social headquarters and in the sports field, allowing players and employees to collect their salaries in digital assets and offering training courses to those fans eager to learn on cryptoassets; even social contributions can be paid in cryptocurrencies.
It is an ambitious project aiming to enlarge the universe of people that adopt cryptocurrencies as capital safeguard and/or as a means of payment. In this sense, the spirit of cryptoassets fintechs is “to bake a bigger cake” rather than “to hold a bigger portion”. The low marketing budgets managed by traditional sponsors such as banks or well-known brands were beneficial for fintechs that manage bigger capital amounts.
But Huracán is not the only friendly-club towards crypto: Deportivo Español de Buenos Aires (currently in First Division C of the Argentine League and close to bankruptcy) started paying part of their players’ salaries (bonds) in a less known crypto: Zoe Cash (leveraged in gold according to its developers). This initiative, as informed by the media iProUp and Infobae, reveals that the crypto revolution is available for small and big institutions; even Club Leandro N. Alem (fourth division) was the first to adopt crypto for payment of salaries (USDT) and is seeking for blockchain-technology sponsorship. These tools are welcome for talent retention and beneficial for local clubs unable to pay salaries in dollars or likewise instruments in foreign currency.
To conclude, I’d like to point out that the current crypto boom is open to anyone having the decision to endorse to it and with a suitable instrumentation team with no need of large infrastructure or big cap amounts. These technologies offer the biggest potential gains and their mass adoption will generate huge returns in a more transparent and safe way in the future market ahead.
Diego J. Nunes
Partner
Estudio Nunes & Asoc.