on the crypto
Crypto and sports appear to be a perfect match, as more and more cryptocurrency companies spend millions to partner with top sports brands around the world. Polkadot, the "Ethereum killer" which can also be traded through Bitcoin Pro, invented by a former founder of Ethereum, could be the next to sign a multimillion-dollar deal with one of the biggest brands in the world of football.
In competition with other big brands
Reports in the sports world reveal that Polkadot is one of the top three companies in the running to become the next jersey sponsor for Spanish football giants FC Barcelona. It is battling with global music streaming company Spotify and VeganNation, a global community, built on blockchain, that focuses on plant-based life.
Barcelona, known affectionately as Barca, are one of the biggest football brands in the world. He dominated the Spanish league, winning it 26 times, second only to Real Madrid and ten times in the past two decades. Forbes ranks it as the second most valuable club in the world, valued at $ 815 million as of December last year, in second place globally, just behind leader Real Madrid.
Currently, Barcelona's jersey sponsor is Rakuten, the Japanese giant of online sales. Their partnership expires in July of this year, and the club is already receiving a list of suitors willing to spend hundreds of millions a year to get Barca players to wear their logo on their jerseys. Polkadot, VeganNation, and Spotify are favorites, reports say.
Polkadot joins the long list of crypto-sports deals
Despite the high interest in sponsoring the jersey, sleeves and training kit, Barcelona say they are taking things slow to make sure they choose the best partner. The club is known for making unorthodox decisions, such as in 2006 when it chose UNICEF as its jersey sponsor, and instead of making money from the deal, it was paying the UN agency and supporting its initiatives.
The club describes Polkadot as a cryptocurrency platform that supports a high number of transactions per second and a leader in innovation. Currently, Polkadot makes around 1.000 transactions per second and is aiming for one million TPS in the near future.
If the deal is signed, Polkadot will be visible to hundreds of millions of fans who watch Barcelona weekly from around the world and would give him unprecedented exposure.
Other great sponsorship deals
Polkadot will join a growing list of cryptocurrency brands that are working with sports entities to gain exposure. Crypto.com is among the most prolific in this industry, shelling out a whopping $ 700 million to rename the Staples Center into the largest naming rights deal in history.
FTX paid $ 135 million for the Miami Heat arena naming rights in what was the largest cryptocurrency sponsorship deal before Crypto.com blew it up. eToro has partnered with Tottenham Hotspurs and a handful of other English Premier League clubs, Binance is the sponsor of the Lazio shirt in Spain, Crypto.com has paid $ 100 million in a deal with Formula 1, Bitci.com has partnered with the MacLaren F1 team, FTX is sponsoring US Major League Baseball and many more.
Voyager CEO Steve Ehrlich commented:
“Our research shows that there is a lot of crossover between the interest in cryptography and sports enthusiasts. I think this is why more and more companies are jumping into this arena and making some of these bigger deals. "
