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Cryptocurrencies are gaining ground in sports; the NFL already pays in bitcoins

EFE.– The incipient but valuable cryptocurrency business has burst into the world of sports, with a growing number of agreements with the main competitions and sports on the planet to achieve global supremacy of digital currencies such as bitcoins.

When visiting the website of Crypto.com, the company that operates one of the main applications in the world for the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies, it can be read that the platform has cooperation agreements with a select group of partners.

Of the nine partners with whom Crypto.com has entered into collaboration agreements, seven are from the sports field: Formula 1, Serie A football in Italy, the mixed martial arts company UFC, the professional ice hockey team. Montreal Canadiens, the French soccer team Paris Saint Germain (PSG), the automaker Aston Martin and the NBA team Philadelphia 76ers.

On November 25, Crypto.com also signed an agreement with the South American Soccer Confederation (Conmebol) for the digital platform to be the official partner of the Libertadores competition from 2023 to 2026.

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Target: 1 billion users

Crypto.com, a company founded five years ago, with 2,600 employees and 10 million users, wants to “accelerate the global transition to cryptocurrencies.” And for this, it considers that sport is the best way to reach its “next 1,000 million users.”

Crypto.com’s bet on the world of sports is not an extravagant act of “the nouveau riche de la barrio”. A recent survey conducted by the firm Morning Consult indicates that the 47% of sports fans have some knowledge of the world of cryptocurrenciess and in fact, 27% own some of these new currencies.

The figures of those who declare some knowledge of the world of cryptocurrencies are even higher among those who recognize themselves as “avid” sports fans, 66%, and those who make sports bets, 72%.

A perfect combination: sports activities attract billions of people from all over the world, making them excellent platforms to increase the popularity of cryptocurrencies. And sports fans already have a predisposition to embrace digital currencies.

In addition, there is another element that attracts companies like Crypto.com to link with entities such as Paris Saint Germain: the NFTs, acronyms that represent the term “non-fungible token” or “non-fungible token”.

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Sports NFT, a mine to explode

NFTs guarantee that the object to which they are attached is a single digital piece or with a limited and known number of copies. And because it is limited, there is little that can make it extremely valuable.

An NFT can be one of those classic stickers with athletes. But instead of being an image on paper it is a digital photograph. Or it could be a video that captures a historic Lionel Messi goal. And those digital stickers can be stored and transferred. And its value can increase over time.

When the agreement was announced on September 9, by which Crypto.com became the official cryptocurrency partner of Messi and Neymar’s Paris Saint Germain, the co-founder and current CEO of the digital company, Kris Marszalek, did not hide the possibilities that the association opens.

“Between brand visibility, access to the stadium and the team, and NFT’s collaborative development, I have no doubt that we will create new and exciting experiences for soccer fans around the world,” stated Marszalek.

Figures for Crypto.com’s deal with PSG have not been disclosed. But what is known is what Crypto.com has paid to rename the Staples Center, the iconic Los Angeles sports center where the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Clippers, both of the NBA, and the Los Angeles Kings, of the league play. hockey NHL.

As has been leaked to the media, the company has disbursed $ 700 million for the stadium to be called from December 25 and for 20 years Crypto.com Arena.

And what may seem like a substantial amount is not going to cost Crypto.com anything. The company launched in 2018 its own cryptocurrency, Crypto or CRO. A week after the announcement of the deal to rename the Staples Center, CRO’s value jumped more than 55% from a market capitalization of $ 9 billion to $ 18 billion.

The intersection of the world of cryptocurrencies and the world of sports does not end here. Recently a group of about 2,000 people, all fans of cryptocurrencies, started a campaign to buy an NBA team through the sale of NFT.

Although in the end the group “only” raised $ 4 million, far from the more than 1 billion it would take to acquire a modest NBA franchise, the attempt is a warning of what lies ahead.

Another door that has just been opened is to pay the salary of elite athletes with cryptocurrencies. Russell Okung, a player for the Carolina Panthers, one of the teams in the United States’ professional football league (NFL), has just become the first player to earn half his annual salary, $ 13 million, in bitcoin.

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