Marketing & Sponsorship

Is Crypto Making Sports Sponsorship Comeback?

As the crypto market shows signs of life, SportsPro analyses whether it can become a viable sports sponsorship category and what rights holders should have learned from the previous goldrush.

Tottenham Hotspur have started this season with the Kraken logo on their shirt sleeve. Uefa has named Crypto.com as a global sponsor of its revamped Champions League and the National Football League (NFL) has just announced a Europe-focused partnership with Bitpanda.

Erm, guys? It’s 2021 calling, and it wants its emerging sponsorship category back.

It’s been a couple of years since anyone who was anyone in sport was cashing in on the cryptocurrency industry’s seemingly insatiable appetite for sponsorship, only for hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of deals to collapse when the market crashed in late 2022. The biggest casualty of that was FTX, which had contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars with the likes of the Miami Heat, Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Mercedes F1 team. But the whole episode seemed to lead to a breakdown in trust.

However, does a recent flurry of activity suggest there’s life in the crypto sponsorship category yet?

Why is this happening now?
I don’t claim to be a finance guy, but the volatility of the crypto market means it is susceptible to wild fluctuations in price. Reporting from earlier this year suggested that the industry was showing signs of recovery as Bitcoin reached record heights, while the regulatory advancements slowly coming into effect will play a part in restoring faith in the sector.

As it relates to sport, though, the industry is still encountering a challenging sponsorship market. They might not be as desperate as they were in 2021, when there was greater pressure to plug revenue holes created by the Covid-19 pandemic, but Daniel Haddad, head of commercial strategy at sports marketing agency Octagon, points out that soccer teams, particularly those outside a select group of clubs, are facing an uphill battle to maintain or grow the value of the premium assets on their kit.

Those facing a similar predicament may therefore be willing to go back to the crypto industry if the price is right.

“In some ways, I think it tells us more about the market than the category,” Haddad says.

Are there still risks?
Absolutely, for all the reasons mentioned above. But some sports properties see it as one worth taking.

Haddad says one surprise has been that some of the rights holders reembracing crypto have had “mixed experiences in that category before”. For example, Inter Milan, who over the summer entered partnerships with Gate.io and BlockDAG, which has also teamed up with Borussia Dortmund, missed out on millions of dollars promised by former shirt sponsor DigitalBits.

As a result, he expects one of the learnings from the previous gold rush is knowing what contractual protections to put in place, particularly around termination clauses and how payments are scheduled.

Finances aside, there’s also the reputational risk of getting back into business with a sector that stirs scepticism among supporters, particularly after many crypto partnerships were disguised as fan engagement.

“I think, really, the main reputational risk is that clubs or any rights holder that enter into these deals don’t clearly communicate what the product is that their partner is marketing through the relationship,” Haddad says. “Hopefully that would be a big learning from the first deals done in this category.”

Another challenge previously was that it was difficult to know which firms were reputable businesses in what was still a relatively new – and sometimes murky – sector. That led to some teams getting burned by companies who either couldn’t fulfil payments or, in some extreme cases, weren’t even who they claimed to be.

There is still some nuance to the sector. After all, brands operating within the crypto industry serve different functions, whether they be cryptocurrencies themselves, exchange platforms, or even bookmakers like Southampton’s new shirt sponsor Rollbit.

However, the likes of Crypto.com, Kraken, OKX and Coinbase are among a group of companies that have built brand equity by being able to either sustain or strike new partnerships before, during and after the so-called crypto winter, which could be a good gauge for sports properties when carrying out their due diligence.

Inter signed deals with two crypto firms over the summer despite previously seeing a front-of-shirt partnership with DigitalBits break down

How will this play out?
Following the crypto crash, we all speculated (guilty) what industry might replace it. The outlook doesn’t appear as bleak as it did back then, although I would defer to the aforementioned finance guys to speculate on the long-term viability of the market.

For sports sponsorship, though, perhaps there is a future where crypto becomes one among many categories that rights holders look to find partners for – even if spending levels don’t quite reach the peak of a few years ago.

Haddad predicts that there will be “a flurry of activity” from the crypto sector at the lower end of the market, where entry points for sponsorship rights are lower and deals are done on a shorter-term basis. But he suggests it will remain slow at the top.

“I can’t see there being ten crypto brands who can all spend 50 to 100 million a year on sponsorship rights,” he adds. “Where we’re getting to now – with a couple of players who do big deals, and the rest of the deals in the market are on a completely different level and with a different profile of rights holder – to me seems like more of a landing point than the previous situation.”

Role reversal
It’s not often you see a rights holder doing the sponsoring. But that’s exactly what Nascar is doing through a new partnership with esports company Blast covering world championship events in Fortnite and Rocket League, which will integrate the stock car series into physical and digital activations.

This isn’t the first time that the stock car racing series has moved over to the buy side in an effort to attract new fans, having previously partnered with the athletics departments at the University of Alabama and South Carolina and signed NIL deals with college athletes.

I don’t mind it. Better to be proactive and try to build an affiliation through sports that younger audiences are already paying to see, rather than hope that they’ll somehow stumble across one of your events on television or – even less likely – in person.

Sportspromedia

Marketing & Sponsorship

Fifa President Branded ‘A Chancer’ Over £1,750 Club World Cup Tickets

Fifa has been slammed by football fans after the first ticket prices for next year’s Club World Cup were published, with the cheapest seats available for the final costing £700 ($890).

The prices, listed on Bayern Munich’s website, go up to £1,755 ($2,230) for lower-tier seats at the final, which will be played at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

In response, the Football Supporters’ Association called Fifa president Gianni Infantino “an absolute chancer” in a post on social media.

The prices published by Bayern, one of 32 clubs set to play in the first edition of the revamped competition, showed that their group stage tickets range from £35 ($45) to £127 ($161).

Prices rise steeply in the knockout stages of the Club World Cup, starting at £220 ($279) for the quarter-finals and £414 ($526) for the semi-finals.

Fifa’s website says that tickets for some group stage matches will be available for £24 ($30) plus taxes and fees, but it has not yet published a full list of prices for all games.

The first phase of ticket sales is due to begin on Thursday and run until mid-January. Seats are being sold on a first come, first served basis and Fifa said it expected them to “go fast”.

A presale window opened on Tuesday for the 12 host venues, which also include Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, Audi Field in Washington DC and LA’s Rose Bowl Stadium.

Further sales are set to take place through the clubs participating in the Club World Cup from January. England’s representatives will be Manchester City and Chelsea.

Manchester City face group games against Juventus, Al Ain and Wydad AC, while Chelsea will meet Flamengo, Club Leon and Esperance.

Fifa and Infantino could face a further backlash after it emerged that dynamic pricing will also be used in the sales process for the Club World Cup.

The sales method gained notoriety earlier this year when Oasis used it to maximise returns from ticket sales for their reunion tour in 2025.

Marketing & Sponsorship

FIFA To Open New Office Hub In Rabat, Morocco

In a further decentralisation of the organisation, FIFA have announced that the world governing body will be opening an office in Rabat, Morocco.

Alongside Miami, Paris and Jakarta, the Rabat office will serve as one of four major FIFA hubs. The office in the Moroccan capital will host a mix of personnel from different departments. Morocco will co-host the 2030 World Cup and FIFA said the office in the Moroccan capital will be opened next year.

In a statement, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said: “We know how welcoming the people of Morocco are. Everybody loves Morocco. I am sure the world will celebrate Morocco and football here, again, in 2030. Congratulations and thank you! And this is why we at FIFA decided to set up our main African office here, in Morocco, in Rabat.

“This is where we’ll draw the future of African football, together. We will write new fascinating and exciting pages for the future of African football. I am sure that, together, we will give Africa the success it deserves.”

On social media, FIFA director of member associations Africa Gelson Fernandes called the new office “a key milestone”.

The Confederation of African football has traditionally run its business from Cairo in Egypt.

Infantino has been decentralising FIFA at a rapid pace. Paris is home to FIFA’s football development activities with strong ties to Africa. However, a French court denied FIFA the tax breaks the organsation had been seeking. Last summer, reports were that FIFA’s offices have been downsized.

FIFA and Infantino also moved the organisation’s legal department from Zurich to Miami where FIFA have a hub ahead of the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. That move was met with resistance from FIFA’s in-house lawyers. FIFA however have never clarified the motive of the decision.

The governing body also has eleven regional development offices scattered around the world to provide member associations with more support. These offices are in Barbados, Panama, Paraguay, Senegal, Congo, South Africa, Rwanda, the UAE, India, Malaysia and New Zealand.

Contact the writer of this story at moc.llabtoofdlrowedisni@itnuk.ardnimas

Media

How To Watch The Club World Cup Draw Live On DAZN: Date, Time, Draw Format

The FIFA Club World Cup takes place in July 2025 in the US, with the world’s best clubs and players fighting it out to be crowned world champions and it will all be broadcast live on DAZN.

All 63 matches in competition will be broadcast by DAZN worldwide, in multiple languages, and all for free, as clubs from Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa and Oceania all compete.

The build up to the expanded, 32-team competition heats up when the tournament draw is made on Thursday, December 5,which you can watch for free exclusively on DAZN. Sign up here for a free DAZN account to watch.

The new format is set to be played every four years, just like the World Cup.

Who is in the Club World Cup draw?
The 32 clubs involved are some of the biggest in the football world. They include Real Madrid, River Plate, Flamengo, Juventus, Boca Juniors, Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Paris St-Germain.

Qualification for the tournament was based on either winning a continental title – IE: UEFA Champions League or CONMEBOL Libertadores – in one of the four most-recent seasons or by having a high ranking of performance in the top-level continental tournament over the four-year period.

So, for a country like England, who were given two slots, Manchester City and Chelsea will represented them, rather than say Liverpool, because the former two clubs have won the Champions League more recently.

Pot 1: Manchester City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris St-Germain, Flamengo, Palmeiras, River Plate, Fluminense
Pot 2: Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, Porto, Atletico Madrid, Benfica, Juventus, Salzburg
Pot 3: Al Hilal, Ulsan, Al Ahly, Wydad, Monterrey, Club Leon, Boca Juniors, Botafogo
Pot 4: Urawa Red Diamonds, Al Ain, Esperance Sportive de Tunisie, Mamelodi Sundowns, Pachuca, Seattle Sounders, Auckland City, Inter Miami
How to watch the Club World Cup draw
The Club World Cup draw will take place at 6pm GMT; 1pm ET; 12pm CT on Thursday, December 5. It will be broadcast live and for free on DAZN worldwide.

To watch on DAZN, simply enter your email address to setup a free account and that is it. Sign up here.

Or, if you are already a DAZN subscriber or Freemium member, then the draw is part of your current membership.

DAZN News will also be running a live blog of the draw to keep you fully up-to-date with proceedings.

How does the draw work and key rules?

The pots
Pot 1 is made up of the highest-ranked teams from Europe and South America. Pot 2 is the rest of Europe.

Pot 3 is the best of Asia, Africa, Concacaf and the rest of South America

Pot 4 is all remaining clubs.

The rules of the draw
No group can feature more than one team from the same confederation except for UEFA, which has 12 teams across the eight groups
Teams from the same country cannot be drawn together, which only affects Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid
Inter Miami CF take position four in Group A and will play the opening game
Seattle Sounders take position four in Group B to ensure they play at their home ground
There is also a seeding structure in place, which means UEFA’s top seeds Real Madrid and Manchester City will be in opposite halves of the draw, as will CONMEBOL’s Flamengo and Palmeiras. It means these teams will not potentially meet until the semi-finals, if they all win their respective groups.

The same principle of being in opposite halves of the draw applies to Pot 1 seeds 3 and 4 for each confederation, which are Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain; and River Plate & Fluminense.

In Pot 1 the UEFA teams will be placed into groups so that, if they finish first in the group, they cannot play each other before the semi-finals. The same applies to the four South American teams.

To achieve the necessary draw build for Pot teams, pathways have been created.

Pathway 1: Winners of Groups A, C, E and G play the runners-up of Groups B, D, F and H.
Pathway 2: Winners of Groups B, D, F and H play the runners-up of Groups A, C, E and G.
In Pot 2 Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Internazionale and FC Porto will be drawn into a group with one of Flamengo, Palmeiras, River Plate, Fluminense.

Atlético Madrid, Benfica, Juventus and RB Salzburg will be drawn into a group with one of Manchester City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain.

How the draw will run
Finally we can actually get to the draw. It will start by drawing all of the teams from team pot 1, then pots 2, 3 and 4. Groups will be filled in order, subject to draw rules.

For Groups A and B, the other teams take the same position as their pot (as Inter Miami and Seattle are in position 4).

For Groups C to H, the position in the group will be drawn. This influences the order of the fixtures.

Where is the Club World Cup being staged?
The July 2025 tournament will be hosted by the United States, as a warm up to them co-hosting 2026 World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico.

There will be 12 different stadiums used for the club competition.

The first match will be held in Miami on Sunday, June 15, at the Hard Rock Stadium, and will see home club Inter Miami play.

New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium will host the final on July 13.

Atlanta, Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Charlotte, TQL Stadium
Cincinnati, Bank of America Stadium
Los Angeles, Rose Bowl Stadium
Miami, Hard Rock Stadium
Nashville, GEODIS Park
New Jersey, MetLife Stadium
Orlando, Camping World Stadium
Orlando, Inter&Co Stadium
Philadelphia, Lincoln Financial Field
Seattle, Lumen Field
Washington DC, Audi Field

Watch the Club World Cup draw live on DAZN
Club World Cup

Or, if you are already a DAZN subscriber or Freemium member, then the draw is part of your current membership.

A DAZN Freemium account costs nothing and provides access to action across football, boxing, NFL, golf, darts, motorsports, basketball and padel.

This includes the UEFA Women’s Champions League, NFL, PDC Darts, LIV Golf, Super League Basketball and Saudi Pro League, plus other weekly specially selected games, leagues, sports and highlights.

Free TV Channels include Matchroom Boxing, PGA Tour, PDC Darts, PowerSports World, Billiard TV and Padel Time TV.

You only need an email address to register for a Freemium account, with no hidden costs or fees.