Manchester City Forges a Multimillion-Dollar Deal With Crypto Exchange OKX

Manchester City has announced the forging of a multimillion-dollar sponsorship deal with crypto exchange OKX. The agreement will cover the club’s men’s and women’s teams and esports activities. It will also touch the club’s venues; the 55,000 seat Etihad stadium, 7,000 capacity academy stadium, and collaboration of future projects.

Manchester City Adds Crypto Exchange OKX to Their Sponsors’ List

A recent report from Forbes explains that Manchester City has entered a multi-million deal with crypto exchange OKX. The deal will take a sponsorship nature on the clubbing activities. However, the source did not disclose further financial details of the deal involving the soccer club worth over $4B.

Manchester City is among the most recent sports clubs and organizations to join the crypto bandwagon. The deal with OKX is not its first one and probably not the last either. OKX has also partnered with other non-financial organizations in the near past.

Crypto exchange OKX is the second largest in derivative transaction volume with over $20T changing hands over the past 24 hours per CoinMarketCap. Star Xu founded the exchange in 2017, an embattled crypto entrepreneur who later declared his innocence publicly in 2020.

OKX carried the name OKEX till this year, and it is a Chinese-founded exchange based in the Republic of Seychelles. It operates on a global scale in over 100 countries. Per the exchange’s January 2022 report, the company grew by over 700% during 2021, making its deal with the English Premier League champions noteworthy.

Manchester City Bulks up in the Crypto Craze

Manchester City is among the most active sports clubs globally in terms of crypto adoption. It is trying out almost every available solution in the crypto-verse to connect with its fans. 

In March 2021, crypto.news reported that the club had forged yet another deal with mobile app Socios.com to launch a fan token. The club made a Chiliz based fan token to allow its fans to contribute directly to its governance and feel ownership in its activities.

The token allows the fans to access VIP rewards, promotions, AR-enabled features, and clubs governance through voting processes. Almost a year later, crypto.news reported that the club had revealed plans to build a replica of the Etihad stadium in the metaverse. The metaverse is the most recent innovation in the crypto sphere showing the club’s urge to connect with fans through the technology.

Crypto Adoption Accelerates in the Sports Sector.

Crypto adoption has already caught up with the sports sector, with different clubs and stakeholders welcoming it. Multiple soccer clubs already have fan tokens and NFT projects, either functional or in-development. For Instance, Barcelona has a fan token, the NFT project, and is planning to develop a club’s cryptocurrency.

Last year FTX forged a 19 year deal worth around $135M to Miami Heats for naming rights of their arena. Crypto.com also spent over $700M to repace Staples Centre Moniker for 20 years. These are some recent developments in crypto adoption in the sports sector. The adoption rates might even increase as a recent Nielson report anticipates the crypto spending of the sports sector to breach the $5B mark by 2026.