There is a natural synergy that connects sports and finance and the majority of today’s sports fans are more than familiar with their favorite team’s ability to generate revenues. In order to operate successfully the world’s best teams run a tight ship both on and off the field, court, or rink. For better or worse, top level sport is big business and there are a number of sporting organizations that regularly boast eye watering numbers. The UFC was recently purchased for a price of $4 billion by a group led by talent agency WME-IMG. This purchase saw previous owners the Fertitta brothers experience massive returns on their initial $2 million investment.
Leading up to the sale, the company had an annual revenue of about $600 million putting it on par with some of the world’s most valuable sports franchises such as the Dallas Cowboys, estimated by Forbes to be worth $4 billion and soccer team Manchester United which holds a market value of $2.6 billion and operates with a yearly revenue of over $650 million.
However, in addition to generating large amounts of money, sport has the ability to bring people together, foster communities, and generate a passionate following in a way that is difficult to match. Grassroots sports, despite sometimes lacking funding often attract the most passionate participants and a trio of forward thinking cryptocurrencies are tapping into the sports community by aligning with sports teams in a number of synergistic partnerships.
Dash has partnered with Canada’s Tristar Gym, home to MMA stars such as Georges Saint-Pierre and Rory MacDonald and recently hosted a number of giveaways during the build up to the Floyd Mayweather – Conor McGregor boxing match. Dash teamed up with Firas Zahabi, head of Tristar to handout Dash cash prizes including a $10,000 worth of Dash payout to a fight fan who accurately predicted the outcome of the fight. Dash also sponsor up and coming MMA fighter Davis Dos Santos who is originally from Aracaju, Sergipe in Brazil but has been living and training in Montreal for the last 10 years and is now based in Canada. Dos Santos enjoys the support of a tight knit and passionate martial arts community in his home country which helped bring him to the attention of Dash team members.
The NEM Foundation, the creators of the XEM cryptocurrency and NEM blockchain platform recently struck a sponsorship deal with Lithuanian basketball club Lietuvos Rytas. Rytas boast a healthy track record of two EuroCup titles, five Lithuanian League titles, three Lithuanian Cups and three Baltic Championships. The deal, worth a reported 500,000 Euros sees the sponsorship paid entirely in XEM, and is also supported by an extensive city-wide public education campaign that focuses on the usage and benefits of the XEM cryptocurrency. As a result of investing in the team and city of Vilnius NEM will secure valuable distribution rights for its XEM currency and foster its adoption throughout the city.
NEM President Lon Wong stated “We are very proud to support Lithuania’s capital city with its important and historic move into adopting blockchain technology, our NEM blockchain is designed to deliver a future where everyone can safely and economically transact without borders or middlemen”. The sentiment was mirrored by Remigijus Šimašius, the mayor of Vilnius who believes that the sponsorship arrangement will encourage a “strong appetite” in Lithuania for adopting digital currencies as a payment method of choice. The union between NEM and Rytas also means that Lithuanian basketball fans will be able to purchase game tickets, season passes, and team merchandise via the NEM currency. There are also plans to incorporate NEM into a host of other areas such as banking, logistics, medical administration, public transport, and supply chains.
PIVX have also thrown their hat into the ring with their sponsorship of KKS Rawa Katowice who play soccer in the NIKE Playarena League in Katowice,Poland. The privacy coin is hoping to improve their level of exposure whilst also adding to their growing community. KKS currently take to the field in distinctive purple shirts emblazoned with the PIVX logo and the Polish outfit are determined to make their presence felt on social media after promising to make videos about PIVX in Polish and to regularly update their Facebook fan page.. “We are in top 16 teams from over 1000 in Poland and it makes us proud to represent PIVX, because we want people in Poland to know about this great project, community and amazing investment for the future” a KKS team member added.
PIVX have starting the PIVXsports program and have conceded that their goal is to sponsor teams in their community, with a good story and who can illustrate how sponsorship helps them, their team, the sport and their community. PIVX are focused on spreading funds throughout all sporting levels and are looking to announce additional sporting collaborations in the new future and have developed a web-form on their site for athletes and teams to apply.
Dash, NEM, and PIVX are projects with a strong focus on community and their sports affiliations are in tune with their community based approaches. These unions are currently win-win situations as the cryptos gain exposure and access to a passionate group of potential supporters while the teams are able to secure much needed funding. Sports and cryptocurrencies make for slightly unexpected but very well matched partners and we can expect to see a lot more successful collaborations in the future.