Cryptocurrency companies spend $2.4B on sports sponsorships – Sports Business Journal

Cryptocurrency companies have “committed more than $2.4 billion to sports marketing in the past 18 months,” all in the “name of luring more users to their Web3 world,” according to Kim Bhasin of BLOOMBERG NEWS. Their “largesse may prove fleeting,” however, as this year’s “severe slump in the crypto market will test these companies’ willingness and ability to continue throwing money at leagues, teams, and athletes.” But for now the deals “keep coming,” leading franchise owners and execs to “view crypto as sports’ next great benefactor.” There is “particular appeal” for sports outfits because each deal is “additive, bringing on a new sponsor to join incumbents rather than elbowing them aside.” At F1’s inaugural GP in Miami this spring, the “entire complex was decked out in Crypto.com signage.” Crypto.com CMO Steven Kalifowitz “wouldn’t say exactly how much he spent to inundate the 240,000 in attendance and millions of TV viewers around the world with crypto logos over the three-day race weekend.” But it “had to be enough to make sure Crypto.com would be most memorable.” Perhaps no sport has capitalized on the crypto marketing spree “more than the NBA.” A source said that Coinbase “committed to spend almost $200 million over four years with the league.” That puts it in the “ranks of corporate partners such as Anheuser-Busch InBev, AT&T, and PepsiCo” (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 8/5).