The "Campeonato Paulista", the regional soccer championship of the State of Sao Paulo is the biggest and most important regional tournament in Brazil and the 2022 edition will have Binance as one of its sponsors.
Binance recently announced it is the new sponsor of the 2022 edition of the Campeonato Paulista, one of the most prestigious soccer competitions in Brazil and Latin America. This is yet another step of the giant crypto exchange in the region.
Why is this a big deal?
It's needless to say that soccer is huge in Brazil. Every year, literally millions of people leave their houses or get in front of the TV to watch soccer matches even if their own teams are not playing.
Because the State of Sao Paulo concentrates the majority of the best teams in the country, the Campeonato Paulista is the most competitive and prestigious tournament in the country, averaging 15 million viewers per match. That's no Superbowl, but not too shabby either.
Binance's strategy
Similar to what's happening in many developing countries, the crypto market in Brazil has grown considerably in the last few years so it's not a surprise that Binance wants its piece of the cake.
To try and take advantage of this blooming environment, the exchange announced the creation of exclusive NFTs and also LiveNFTs which, as I understood, are going to be minted right after an important event of the matches so, to give an example, fans would be able to purchase an NFT of a goal that their team scored a few moments after the ball hits the net. They didn't provide much detail on those yet, so it's not clear how much time we're talking about here, but I believe that's the general idea.
This is actually not the first move that Binance made on the Brazilian soccer market: last year they announced a sponsorship for Santos FC, one of the most traditional teams in the country and in the world, being the team that revealed soccer legend Pelé, many years ago.
After announcing the partnership with the team, Binance launched SANTOS, the team's official fan token and the news of the recent partnership with Campeonato Paulista had quite an impact on the token price.
Is it going to work?
NFTs have grown a lot in popularity in the last year or so, and so has crypto adoption in Brazil and other countries in Latin America. Combine that with the passionate love for soccer that's been in place for ages and you're guaranteed to have a successful outcome, right?
Well, to be honest, I'm not sure. There is no denying that a lot of factors seem to favour Binance's initiative but I'm still a bit skeptical on the adoption of NFTs and crypto by the masses. That being said, I believe it's an important step to make crypto more accessible to the general population so I'm hoping that, at least, Binance draws some curious eyes to the fantastic world of crypto.