How crypto remains important in sports

Cryptocurrency firms are expanding their presence in sports as the FIFA World Cup highlights growing adoption across sponsorships, payments, and betting.

It is the biggest sports event on the calendar, and cryptocurrency companies have made sure that they have remained visible throughout the FIFA World Cup so far. The quadrennial event, bringing together the best football players in the world to represent their countries, trumps even the Super Bowl for ratings. In fact, President of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, had previously claimed that this year’s expanded tournament would be like “104 Super Bowls”, referring to the number of games at the tournament.

That bold statement might be a little grandiose, but there is no denying that the World Cup is the biggest thing in sports. Cryptocurrency platforms and related businesses will obviously want to be associated with it in some way or another, but it is not as though there is not already a strong relationship between crypto and sports.

Cryptocurrency is now, undoubtedly, part of the mainstream. And people could not get much more mainstream than sports. Streaming packages are sold on the back of it, and sports betting is now a multi-billion-dollar business in the US. The popularity of Bitcoin sportsbooks has opened the sector to new demographics, and many of the best sportsbooks profiled at OnlineSportsBetting.net now accept a range of digital currencies.

This is still a new relationship — but a very strong one. Here’s how crypto remains so important to the world of sports.

Crypto sponsorships

One of the most visible signs of the growing bond between crypto and sports is the raft of sponsorships around the world. Whether it is the Staples Arena in Los Angeles, home of the Lakers, changing its name to the Crypto.com Arena or the numerous jersey sponsorships in soccer, crypto company names are everywhere.

Companies in all business sectors realized a very long time ago that sponsorship of sports teams and leagues is one of the best ways to grow brand awareness. Crypto firms are doing nothing new here, but they have definitely made sponsorship a high priority when it comes to getting their names out and known among the general public.

Athlete payment

Odell Beckham Jr. was one of the first very high-profile athletes to take a large chunk of his salary and associated payment in a digital currency. His continued success — and the success of the cryptocurrency he was paid in — is the best example crypto companies can use to advertise this form of payment to individuals.

More and more athletes are now, at the very least, open to taking payment in digital currencies, and the crypto community knows that this is a great way to attract more users and customers. These kinds of payments make crypto even more a part of mainstream society, normalizing the use of it for everyday and routine tasks.

Digital fan tokens

Sports teams and leagues have been very keen to get in on the action when it comes to crypto commerce, and one of the most popular has been digital tokens. NFTs were the big thing a few years ago, as athletes attempted to cash in on the craze for modern-day collectibles. But since that boom faded, fan tokens have been more prevalent.

Based on blockchain technology, sports teams (especially some of the leading soccer clubs in Europe) have sold digital fan tokens to allow their supporters to own digital assets. Many times, these tokens offer the fans a chance to have a say on club or team matters. The tokens are mainly sold on the idea of increasing fan engagement, a particularly important part of the sports world these days.

Ownership groups

For some, the next best thing to being a sports star is to own the team the stars play on. It is hardly surprising that with cryptocurrency companies, some of the most profitable and successful at the current time, the people behind the businesses are looking to sports to spread their wealth and grow their brand names even further.

Many of the top sports teams around the world are now owned by people within the crypto community or those with access to the money that it generates. This is even the case when it comes to smaller teams. There have been numerous examples of lower league soccer teams being taken over by crypto businessmen and women —  with varying degrees of success, admittedly.

The future of crypto and sports

As crypto continues to grow, it is undeniable that it will play an even bigger role within the sports environment. It is already highly visible in the form of sponsorship and payments, and will only integrate further over the next few years. The more mainstream crypto becomes, the more it will play a part in what is the ultimate example of mainstream society.

There will be changes in the years to come, as more regulations become commonplace in the cryptocurrency sector. But with advances in technology and the growing normalization of digital currencies and blockchain, we should expect to see an even stronger bond between crypto and sports, and crypto becoming even more important than it is today.