Crypto companies pour $170m into Premier League sponsorships

Premier League (PL) clubs have secured a record $170 million in sponsorship deals from crypto companies for the 2024/25 season, according to a September 7 Bloomberg report.

This upswing comes as league participants face tighter restrictions on gambling sponsorships, which have traditionally been a major source of revenue for them.

Crypto sponsorships are on the rise

According to the report, several major clubs have already signed big crypto deals. For example, leading cryptocurrency exchange Kraken sponsors Tottenham Hotspur, La Liga’s Atletico Madrid, as well as RB Leipzig of the German Bundesliga.

Meanwhile, in June 2023, reigning Premier League champions Manchester City extended their partnership with OKX for three years in a deal that will cost the platform $70 million.

Another crypto exchange, Crypto.com, is also heavily involved in football. The company, which owns the naming rights to the former Staples Center, home to the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers, among others, announced in August that it will sponsor the UEFA Champions League until 2027.

The influx of crypto sponsorship isn’t just limited to the biggest names in the biggest leagues; Turkish side Galatasaray recently signed a two-season deal with blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, worth around $4 million, to have its logo appear on the team’s jersey sleeves.

Play out, get into crypto

For PL clubs, these partnerships mark a significant change in the sponsorship landscape, especially with an imminent ban on betting advertisements on the front of the shirt by mid-2026. This is in addition to the ban on ‘whistle at the whistle” of 2019 from betting ads during live matches.

During the 2023/24 season, eight teams had gambling sponsors on the front end, earning them collectively close to $80 million per year.

However, according to Daniel McDonagh, a partner at the UK law firm Charles Russell Speechlys, who was quoted in the Bloomberg report, crypto companies are now stepping in to fill the gap caused by the limitations on game sponsorship. random

Some believe the move is part of efforts to clean up the image of the digital assets industry after the bad press that arose with the collapse of several high-profile firms, including Three Arrows Capital (3AC), Voyager Digital and FTX.

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