The Growing Impact of Cryptocurrency in the Sporting World
The global reach of cryptocurrencies has spread rampantly from industry to industry, and the rate of this growth seems to show no signs of letting up. If we’ve seen anything this year, the sports industry is certainly not immune to this growth. In fact, it’s embracing it with open arms. There have been more and more instances of teams, leagues, and organizations accepting cryptocurrency as a method of payment for so many different services, and there will no doubt be more opportunities in the future for teams to dive in with both feet.
One of these teams has been the San Jose Sharks, who will become the first NHL team to accept cryptocurrency for payments on things such as season ticket purchases and hospitality boxes. They will even be accepting it as a way for companies to provide payment for future sponsorship deals. This arrangement has been made possible thanks to a company called BitPay, an Atlanta-based payment processor that will assist in allowing the Sharks to accept various forms of cryptocurrency including Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum, and more. BitPay also work with the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA, who have famously been accepting cryptocurrency since 2019.
Even as someone who is admittedly undereducated when it comes to the pros and cons of cryptocurrencies and how they work, I’m confident that this move by the Sharks, and others like it, will be a game changer in the industry. In the future, could teams allow for cryptocurrency payments on merchandise sales? What about making purchases through official team mobile apps? If teams like the San Jose Sharks find success in the cryptocurrency game, I see no reason why this isn’t something that can be expanded on even further in the sporting world.
Cryptocurrency is also something that is changing the way sport sponsorships work. Over the years, many teams and leagues have begun to arrange sponsorship deals with booming cryptocurrency exchange platforms around the world. This has helped the cryptocurrency industry gain more of a footing in the sport industry by increasing their brand recognition. For example, Arsenal have signed a sponsorship deal with CashBet Coin to be the club’s official Blockchain partner. In the UFC, we’ve seen similar deals such as one saw Litecoin become their official cryptocurrency partner at UFC 232. And in the motorsport world, Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team became the first team in the sport to partner with a cryptocurrency company, Crypto.com.
There is no doubt that the rising levels acceptance for cryptocurrencies are making big waves, as are the levels of risk when it comes to their values. This volatility means that teams must be cautious not to put too many of their assets into cryptocurrency without good cause. Still, it appears to be a development that’s not only here to stay in the sporting world, but one that organizations would be ignorant to ignore.