Category: Sports

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Crypto News Sports Tezos

Manchester United to Partner with Tezos for $27 Million Per Year Sponsorship Deal

English Premier League football club Manchester United is expected to announce a promotions partnership with blockchain platform Tezos. According to sports news website theathletic.com, the deal is worth US$27 million annually and will place Tezos front and centre on United’s training kit.

Tezos Replaces Aon as Man United’s Training Sponsor

Tezos is said to have agreed to a multi-year contract with Manchester United. While an official announcement is pending, Man U has reportedly been filming promotional material at its training centre.

https://madaboutepl.net/2020/10/team-news-and-predicted-manchester-united-lineup-vs-psg/
Manchester United players celebrate a goal. Source: Mad About EPL

This comes as American insurance company Aon’s eight-year contract with the club concludes. United has been without a training kit sponsor for the current season, following the collapse of negotiations with The Hut Group. The Manchester-based company withdrew its interest over concerns regarding potential fan boycotts of United’s commercial partners as part of a protest against the club’s ownership by the Glazer family, who have placed it in considerable debt since taking over in 2005.

United has been in discussion with several other companies, including others in the blockchain field, for the sponsorship deal. However, it is expected the Tezos announcement will be finalised in coming weeks. Manchester United and Tezos have declined to comment on the deal.

Crypto Extends Its Reach in Sports Sponsorship

Tezos is not new to sports sponsorships. Notably, it became the first blockchain sponsor of the New York Mets baseball team in May 2021 and is in partnership with Red Bull Racing to develop an NFT experience for the team. The company has also joined the line-up of sponsors for McLaren Racing across IndyCar, Formula 1 and esports.

However, Tezos isn’t the only blockchain making sponsorship moves in the sporting world. In August 2021, meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin entered a partnership with Watford FC (another popular EPL club). This million-dollar agreement saw Watford players wear the Dogecoin logo for the remainder of the season.

Coinbase has also become an official sponsor of the NBA and is looking to break into other professional basketball leagues including the WNBA and the NBA 2K league.

Additionally, Dutch football club PSV Eindhoven entered a deal in August 2021 with Anycoin Direct to be paid entirely in bitcoin, helping to promote cryptocurrency adoption throughout Europe.

By Lauren Claxton, Crypto News Guest Author

Categories
Australia Crypto News NFTs Sports

Nick Kyrgios Celebrates Australian Open Win With ‘King Collection’ NFT Launch

It was only ever a matter of time before flamboyant and controversial Australian tennis bad boy Nick Kyrgios exploited the burgeoning non-fungible token (NFT) market, and his first Grand Slam title has afforded him the ideal opportunity with the launch of his “King Collection” series.

Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios. Source: Canberra Times

With boyhood friend and makeshift doubles partner Thanasi Kokkinakis, Kyrgios (above, right) won the Australian Open men’s doubles championship last weekend, the pair sharing a lucrative A$675,000 purse for their trouble.

When $337,500 is Only the Beginning

But for a man of Kyrgios’s prodigious proclivities, that was never going to be enough. For added value, five Kyrgios “reaction moments” from the tournament will be released as NFTs in a limited run of 22 priced at US$399 apiece. The first of each of the five series will be an ‘Ultra Rare Gold’ moment, to be auctioned off over the next five days.

King Collection poster. Source: King Collection

Those five series (with descriptions, one suspects, supplied by Kyrgios himself, though the exclamation points are ours) are:

  • Bring The Heat: He sets the court aflame whenever he steps out! He is King Kyrgios!
  • Fly Higher: First Australia, then the world! Nick doesn’t care for limits!
  • Let’s Dance: This is no last dance for Kyrgios! This is only the beginning!
  • LFG: He says it how it is! But we won’t repeat it here! (OK, we will then: “Let’s f..king go!”)
  • Tongue Time: Sometimes the celebration takes over! Control on the court is key, but once you win it’s OK to let loose!

A ‘Hyper Rare Diamond’ NFT celebrating the actual moment Kyrgios and Kokkinakis claimed their doubles title will also be auctioned off as part of the drop at a starting price of (gulp) US$9,999.

Key moment from the ‘Hyper Rare Diamond’ NFT. Source: King Collection

But Wait! There’s More!

If that were not enough, a further drop of 2022 NFTs celebrating the year of Kyrgios’s maiden Grand Slam title will be priced at US$20.22 each. At least most of his fans may find these affordable.

I’m all about the fans and the fan experience so this feels like another great way to connect. NFTs are the future of collectibles and I always want to be on the cutting edge and to advance our sport.

Nick Kyrgios, tennis professional, NFT entrepreneur

The Nick Kyrgios NFT collection (officially and more regally dubbed the King Collection – as in “Nick is here to leave a mark, and to usher in the next gen of sports stars”) – is available to purchase here.

However well Kyrgios does with his NFT drop, it will no doubt run a distant second to the Australian Open (AO) Art Ball NFT metaverse project that has generated US$4.4 million (A$6m) in trading volume since early January in the lead-up to the tournament proper, which concluded last weekend.

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Crypto News Gaming NFTs Sorare Sports

Football Superstar Haaland NFT Sells for $1 Million in Online Auction

Global fantasy football platform Sorare just landed its biggest ever NFT sale, with the Norwegian football superstar Erling Haaland NFT selling for just over A$1 million (265 ETH).

Fanatic YouTubers followed the auction live on-stream and were both excited and shocked when the auction price just kept going up and up. The eventual winner was Zima Blue, who outbid two rivals willing to bid half a million dollars for the Haaland Unique NFT.

The record was previously held by the Kylian Mbappe NFT, which sold for 116 ETH in late 2021. The Haaland card smashed through the French footballer’s price to more than double the record.

Most expensive footballer NFT auctions. Source: SorareData.com

Sorare User Growth Soaring

The number of users owning at least one NFT on the Sorare platform has grown more than 2,700 percent from 3,055 users in January 2021 to 88,143 users in February 2022.

Sorare user growth. Source: SorareData.com

About Sorare

Sorare is a blockchain-based NFT fantasy football game where fans can own their players and enter them into competitions to win prizes.

The France-based company recently completed a US$680 million fundraising round to scale operations and onboard major football leagues around the world.

If you want to find out more, check out our Sorare Review.

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Australia Bitcoin Crypto News Sports

UFC Champ Francis ‘The Predator’ Ngannou to Take Half his Purse in Bitcoin

This weekend at UFC 270 in Anaheim, California, heavyweight champ Francis “The Predator” Ngannou defends his title against former sparring partner and undefeated French interim champ Cyril Gane. Betting underdog Ngannou is the one capturing most of the limelight after announcing he would take half of his purse in bitcoin.

Ngannou Sees Bitcoin as the Future

The African-born knockout artist has a truly inspirational story, having started working at age 10 in a sand quarry, ending up in a Spanish jail and then living on the streets of Paris while trying to pursue a career in boxing.

Francis Ngannou, a tale of rags to riches. Source: Reddit

Despite reaching superstar status in mixed martial arts (MMA) circles, Ngannou first caught the eye of Bitcoiners only last week when he tweeted:

His purse for this weekend’s 25 minutes or less bout is estimated at US$750,000, excluding win or sponsorship bonuses. At a minimum, the bitcoin portion of Ngannou’s earnings would represent US$375,000 (or 8.87 BTC, based on the current price of US$42, 287).

UFC 270 poster. Source: UFC

Given his humble upbringing, it should come as no surprise that the champ appreciates the value of inflation-resistant savings technology, and its capacity to transform the plight of everyday Africans.

Paid in Bitcoin, a Growing Trend?

As infrastructure and tech solutions proliferate, it has become increasingly simple to pay and get paid in bitcoin. In the US, for example, the Strike app (among others) has enabled employees to receive a portion of their salary in bitcoin through automatic dollar-cost-average buys. This has been embraced by people from all walks of life, from ordinary workers to elite athletes:

Closer to home, Australian employees can also get paid in bitcoin through fintech company Living Room of Satoshi, which offers workers the option for any percentage of their wage to be paid directly to their Bitcoin Lightning wallet.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Sports

AFL Signs $25 Million Crypto.com Five-Year Sponsorship Deal

The Australian Football League (AFL) has secured the first major crypto sports sponsorship deal Down Under with Crypto.com for both its men’s and women’s competitions, with the latter’s 2022 season already under way.

Worth A$25 million over five years, the deal is one of the biggest sponsorships of any kind in Australian sport, eclipsing the AFL’s current deal with major sponsor Toyota (worth A$18.5 million).

Singapore-based Crypto.com says its motivation for sponsoring women’s AFL (AFLW) is what it recognises as Australian women’s higher than average adoption and take-up of cryptocurrency by global standards. The company had already engaged A-list actor Matt Damon as the face of its current TV advertising campaign in Australia, though it may be that Crypto.com is banking on his appeal to women as much as to men.

AFL Joins Baseball, Euro Football, Martial Arts and F1

Crypto.com has splurged more than A$1.5 billion on a series of sports branding deals in recent months, including a $US700m (A$971m) naming rights agreement for a Los Angeles baseball stadium, and partnerships with other major sports clients including Euro football powerhouse Paris St Germain, the UFC and Formula One.

The new Australian agreement involves Crypto.com becoming the official cryptocurrency exchange and trading platform of the AFL and AFLW. According to Karl Mohan, Crypto.com general manager Asia & Pacific, research conducted by the company in Australia found that 53 per cent of crypto investors were women, which encouraged it to embrace the AFLW element of the overall deal.

Uniquely for Australia, compared to other markets, is that they generally skew towards blokes, but here we are skewing more towards women … We think the AFL has led the way [in bringing] gender diversity to Australian sport.

Karl Mohan, general manager Asia & Pacific, Crypto.com

Crypto.com branding will appear during score reviews in AFL regular season and finals matches, when contentious goal line decisions are reviewed on video by off-field umpires.

Kylie Rogers, the AFL’s general manager for customer and commercial, said the sport had identified cryptocurrency and blockchain as a potential new sponsorship source last year, and clinched the Crypto.com agreement after several months of negotiations.

AFL ‘At the Forefront’ of Australian Crypto Growth

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said the partnership marked an exciting new chapter for Australian Rules football: “Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology is a dynamic and emerging industry, and the AFL is delighted to partner with Crypto.com to be at the forefront of the industry’s growth in Australia.”

Four AFL clubs – the Sydney Swans, Brisbane Lions, Western Bulldogs and the Melbourne Demons – now have direct sponsorship deals involving cryptocurrency companies other than Crypto.com.

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Australia Crypto News Metaverse NFTs Sports

Australian Open Grand Slam Embraces Crypto with Virtual Tennis Arena and 6,776 NFTs

In a world first for top-level international tennis, the Australian Open – the 2022 season’s first Grand Slam tournament – is set to combine non-fungible tokens (NFTs) with on-court action as the event gets under way in Melbourne from January 17.

The AO, as it’s popularly known, is releasing a collection of 6,776 NFTs that align with tiny squares on the tournament’s centre court surface, along with a virtual event on the metaverse platform Decentraland.

Fans Can Buy a Piece of the Action

Fans can literally buy a piece of the action via an NFT that gives them “property” rights to a 19cm x 19cm area of Melbourne Park’s Rod Laver Arena. They stand to win a prize should the last bounce of the ball fall into their square on the deciding point in any of the approximately 600 matches during the tournament, including men’s and women’s singles, doubles, mixed doubles and wheelchair events.

From day one of the AO, fans will be able to access the virtual centre court via Decentraland, “walk around” it using a keyboard and mouse, watch the tennis action on big screens as they go, and later buy souvenir items in an online shop. They can even enter the virtual Rod Laver Arena and play a game with a simulated tennis ball machine.

Every winning shot from the tournament’s 600 matches will correspond with one of the collection’s NFTs. Owners will receive an airdrop with footage of the point, virtual wearables and AO merch. The data extracted to match the NFTs will be gleaned from the same electronic line-calling technology used to judge actual in-game points.

If the winning point happens to take place in a final, the owner of the NFT square on which the ball lands will receive the actual ball in a custom engraved case. The AO has partnered with metaverse design firm Run It Wild for the event’s construction.

Australian Open NFT Project Collaborators

How to Participate

The court location for each NFT will be determined after the collection’s minting, which takes place from 10am AEDT on January 13 for 0.067 ETH (US$225, or A$315) each. Details can be found at the ao.artball.io site.

Out of the total of 6,776 NFTs:

  • 169 will feature custom designs from winners of the AO Artist Series competition;
  • 22 will be wrapped in historical AO artwork; and
  • the remaining 6585 will be randomly created using an algorithmic combination of unique colour schemes, patterns and textures.

Tennis Australia expects to raise A$2.4 million if all of the NFTs sell, with the majority of funds going to charitable causes, the Australian Tennis Foundation and carbon offsetting.

If last year’s wildfire success of sports trading cards in Australia is any guide, the AO’s innovative NFTs are bound to be a … hit.

Categories
Betting Crypto News Crypto Wallets Gambling Gaming Sports

Exodus Wallet Enables Sports Betting with USDC Using Polygon Blockchain

Blockchain, cryptos and smart contracts are changing the world as we know it, and now have moved into the world of esports, particularly online betting. A recent example is cryptocurrency wallet Exodus integrating with SportX, an online sports and cryptos betting platform, to allow its users to wager on esports games on the Polygon network.

Exodus Gets Into Esports

Exodus is a wallet that helps individuals control their wealth independent of old banking models and free from institutional control. Integration with SportX gives its users the ability to wager on esports games via smart contracts executed on the Polygon network.

The newly announced partnership gives Exodus’s one million-plus users access to SportX’s decentralised betting exchange, where users can wager on a wide array of sports and esports games using cryptos. The minimum bet allowed is US$5, denominated in USD Coin (USDC), which can be directly sent to the Exodus wallet or exchanged from any of the 138 cryptos it supports.

As it stands, SportX is authorised for use in South America, Canada, most European countries excluding France and the Netherlands, and throughout most of Asia.

SportX Also Allows Betting on Crypto Prices

SportX allows users to bet on the outcomes of their favourite sports, esports and also on crypto prices, bringing cryptocurrencies and betting together with the use of smart contract protocols. This capability ensures users’ funds are protected and payouts are guaranteed on time using the Polygon network. The platform also gives players the option to bet on future price fluctuations of major cryptos such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Categories
Crypto News Solana Sports

Michael Jordan Jumps into Web3 With Solana-Based App for Athletes

Six-time NBA champion and basketball legend Michael Jordan is diving into Web3 with a new app called HEIR, designed as a fan engagement platform built on the Solana blockchain.

Connecting Fans to their Favourite Athletes

According to Variety, Jordan is launching HEIR alongside his son, Jeffrey Jordan, together with marketing consultant Daniel George and Jeron Smith, co-founder and CEO of Steph Curry’s media company Unanimous. The firm has raised US$10 million in seed funding from several VC firms including Thrive Capital and Solana Ventures, and it’s expected to be launched in 2022.

HEIR Inc is the firm, and its first product is Heir.app, designed to allow pro athletes from all fields to connect and engage with their fans, especially targeting generation Zs and millennials. As Jeffrey Jordan explained, the Jordan brand has “cultivated a loyal community for over 35 years – the focus now is passing that legacy on to the next generation”.

The app will have its own token minted on Solana, which users can leverage to get exclusive access to athletes’ VIP seats and receive unique first-person NFT drops. Supporters will also have the chance to buy one-time digital assets or join an athletes’ “huddle”.

Solana and Web3

Solana (SOL) has been one of the best-performing DeFi tokens this year. On November 5, Solana’s price surged to almost US$250 following a US$8 million Web3 investment by Syndica, which is building a next-generation blockchain infrastructure for the Solana ecosystem.

However, Solana recently suffered a DDoS attack, which jammed the network and caused huge transaction delays. The token didn’t suffer a huge price drop, but the incident did raise concerns about the security of its consensus algorithm, Proof of History (PoH).

Categories
Blockchain Crypto News Gaming Sports

Football Manager Takes to the Blockchain with Footium

Ever wanted to ‘own’ a football club, build your own squad of players and earn rewards in the process? Now you can do it with Footium, a soccer strategy game where ‘managers’ can mint players from their academy and compete to win prizes.

Gamers Empowered Through Ownership

Co-founded in 2020 by Jordan Lord, a former software engineer at Netcraft, and Oxford economics graduate James O’Leary, Footium claims to improve on existing football games by empowering gamers through ownership.

“By introducing NFTs and a native token, we’ve brought play-to-earn characteristics to the kind of game that millions of users around the world spend hours playing each day,” says Lord, formerly a game developer for Multiverse and in real life a Derby County fan, while O’Leary is a smart contract developer with a passion for gaming.

Millions of people around the world spend hours each day playing football management games purely for fun. What if those hundreds, sometimes even thousands of hours spent playing could also generate revenue and improve their player and club value?

Jordan Lord, co-founder, Footium

Stake Tokens to Improve Club Morale and In-Game Performance

As Lord and O’Leary were building Footium, they realised the value-adding potential of token staking to improve club morale and in-game performance. As Lord says, “We decided to build the game we’d always dreamed of.”

Footium Division 1 has 1 league with 12 teams in and every division you go down, all the way to 8 the number of teams/leagues doubles. With Division 8 having 255 leagues in. Each club has a badge, kit and stadium. The badge will be based on a number of traits, the rarity of which determines their starting position in the league, along with the stadium size.

Initial Clubs Sold Out, But Plenty More Available on Secondary Market

Twice a day, your team plays in your league against other clubs. The game moves fast, with seasons of 20 games finishing inside two weeks. While the initial round has sold out, there is a total of 3060 clubs to choose from in the Footium universe, with plenty available on the secondary market. Go to footium.club for details. You can also follow Footium on Twitter and join the Footium Discord.

For information on three more new and exciting play-to-earn games, see September’s Crypto News Australia report regarding the growing Solana ecosystem. With nearly US$24.8 billion generated to date, 2021 was even then close to surpassing 2020’s full-year revenue (US$30 billion) and on track to overtake 2019 (US$43.6 billion) as the highest-grossing year ever for commercial gaming.

Last month saw the launch of MonkeyBall, a next-gen esports metaverse also based on the Solana blockchain. Like Footium, it’s a play-to-earn soccer game that combines high-production values, multiplayer gaming, NFTs and decentralised finance.

Categories
Crypto News Ethereum Gas NFTs Sports Tokens

ConstitutionDAO: PEOPLE Price Pumps 200% as New ‘We The People’ Token Unveiled

When ConstitutionDAO was outbid in its effort to buy a rare, first-edition copy of the United States Constitution earlier this week, the community announced it would give donors a choice – either accept refunds, or remain in the DAO and receive a new “We The People” (WTP) governance token.

Refund Option Largely Ignored

Left with US$47 million worth of crowdfunded ETH reserves in its multi-signature wallets, ConstitutionDAO was probably unsurprised when many among its Discord community opted against refunds because of the associated high gas fees.

Most instead chose to receive WTP tokens without having to pay a gas fee at the rate of 1 PEOPLE per WTP, pumping the former token’s price by 200 percent. Meanwhile, ConstitutionDAO got to retain the capital in ETH. Win-win, with the bonus that the future price of WTP would rise in tandem with Ether.

DAOs Prove the Sky Is the Limit

DAOs are proving what a community can do when it chooses to achieve a collective goal. The day after ConstitutionDAO’s failed bid for the US Constitution, Krause House – an internet group named after late Chicago Bulls manager Jerry Krause – announced its intention to buy an NBA franchise, funded by the sale of NFTs. The group hit its goal of 200 ETH in the first 15 minutes of launching the sale via Mirror.

And earlier this year, Australian DeFi trading platform Tracer DAO managed to raise US$4.5 million in a strategic round of funding backed by various crypto companies.