2022 was a huge year for crypt. While the market value of some of the biggest coins might be down from a year ago, the presence and brand recognition of crypto are at an all-time high. As of the end of 2022, more than 75% of Americans had heard of Bitcoin and only 5% had never heard of any cryptocurrency. With that kind of awareness, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that advertisers, celebrities, and athletes are all throwing their hats into the ring to try and get a piece of the crypto pie.
Entire leagues like the UFC, MLB, and Formula1 crypto sponsorship of sports is changing the game and leveling the playing field for crypto’s image. With 2022’s Beijing Olympics officially accepting crypto payments for the first time, it’s no secret that the worlds of sports and crypto are actively courting each other. And it’s not just leagues and organizers that are getting in on the action. An ever-growing number of individual athletes have also come out in support of crypto over the last year.
Payday Via Blockchain
As more and more companies large and small are accepting crypto as a valid payment method, an increasing number of athletes have been looking to accept part or all of their salary is some form of crypto. From Bitcoin to special team tokens, blockchain payments are slowly becoming a norm in mainstream sports.
Basketball
In January 2022, Golden State Warriors all-star Klay Thompson finally got hit the paint again after injuring his ACL during the 2019 NBA Finals. Leading up to his return, the four-time NBA champion tweeted out;
“I’m BACK and changing it up: excited to take part of my paycheck in bitcoin thanks to Cash App! I’m with bitcoin because I believe it’s the future of money.”
Thompson isn’t the only superstar to strike this kind of deal, either. His Warriors teammate and NBA Finals MVP Andre Iguodala also announced a partnership with CashApp receiving some of his paychecks in Bitcoin. Both also agreed to put on a million-dollar giveaway in bitcoin for fans.
2021’s first overall draft pick, Cade Cunningham, was scooped up by the Detroit Pistons. Soon after, he announced that he had also been recruited by crypto firm BlockFi in a deal that would see his entire signing bonus converted to Bitcoin. On top of that, he also began working with BlockFi on educational videos and giveaways.
It’s not just players, either. In April 2022, Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé announced that the organization would start letting all players and staff accept their salaries in bitcoin if they chose to. Although most of them these players’ income is FIAT-based, this will let them buy NFT’s or play casino video slots with bitcoin without needing to use an exchange.
Football
These same kinds of deals have spread outside of the NBA with a handful of the biggest names in the NFL also accepting payments in Bitcoin.
Russell Okung was the first to make headlines when he became the very first professional athlete in any major American sport to be paid in bitcoin in December 2020. The Pro-bowl offensive lineman converted half of his $13 million salary into bitcoin with the crypto payment app Zapp.
Four-time league MVP and Super Bowl XLV champion Aaron Rodgers tweeted out in 2021 that he, too, was agreeing to accept a portion of his $134-million-dollar, four-year contract with the Green Bay Packers in Bitcoin. Even Tom Brady, arguably the greatest to ever play the game, purchased a major stake in crypto firm FTX last summer.
in November 2021, LA Rams wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. followed Rogers’ footsteps when he announced he would be accepting his new contract in Bitcoin. Sadly, his contract was only a one-year, $1.25 million agreement and Beckham jr. suffered a devastating ACL injury during his team’s Super Bowl LVI.
Elsewhere in the league, the 2021 first-overall draft pick Trevor Lawrence signed an endorsement deal with crypto investment app Blockfolio which pays him in crypto assets.
Soccer
In 2021, Lionel Messi shocked the soccer world when he signed a new contract with Paris Saint-Garmain. While the specifics of the two-year contract haven’t been made public, the living legend is almost certainly one of the highest-paid athletes on the planet.
Messi’s new deal with PSG was historic for another reason, though. A portion of his new contract is being paid in $PSG Fan Tokens in what the team heralded as “world first.” What are PSG tokens? Put simply, they’re a crypto token that grants holders access to exclusive club benefits including voting and rewards. Upon news of Messi’s signing, the value of a single token skyrocketed to more than $60 highlighting just how much of a demand is out there.
Perhaps the biggest name in soccer, Cristiano Ronaldo, earns a portion of his income in crypto. Juventus awarded Ronaldo 770 Juventus Fan Tokens to commemorate the 770 goals of his career making him the first soccer player to earn direct crypto payments as a bonus for his performance.
But it isn’t just superstars that are getting in on the action. Ifunanyachi Achara might not be a household name, but this Nigerian-born player has made a name for himself locally as part of the Canadian team Toronto FC. In May 2021, Achara announced that he would be taking roughly half his salary in Bitcoin via the third-party exchange service Bitwage.
Unlike many others, Achara’s primary reasoning isn’t investing. When asked about his decision, he stated
“If I wanted to send money to my parents to move away from a state that I felt like was really violent, I couldn’t. I couldn’t send them money to the bank. It was just through Bitcoin that I was able to send my family money more easily and efficiently and as fast as possible.”
MMA
And payments don’t necessarily need to be negotiated on a player-by-player basis. The UFC partnered with Crypto.com in 2021 and part of the deal is that the website started paying fighters’ bonuses in Bitcoin.
These bonuses are paid to the winners of votes that allow fans to choose their top three fighters from each fight night. These Bitcoin bonuses include $30,000 for First Place, $20,000 for Second Place, and $10,000 for Third.
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