Many crypto companies are closing deals with sports teams, organizations and players in what is probably the biggest marketing campaign that the crypto industry has seen
You probably have seen the recent news about Crypto.com sponsoring FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. I don't know more details of the deal other than Crypto.com will be the exclusive bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading platform for the event, as announced by FIFA, whatever that means.
It was not the first move by Crypto.com. They made the news last November when they acquired the naming rights of the former Staples Center in Los Angeles, renaming it as Crypto.com Arena.
Those are probably the most notorious marketing actions by the company, but they have a number of smaller partnerships in motorsports, basketball, football, ice hockey, MMA and others.
According to their "Crypto Market Sizing" report, released in January, Crypto.com believes that the number of crypto owners around the world will grow from 300 million to more than 1 billion by the end of this year. It's a bold prediction that explains their very aggressive marketing strategy.
While Crypto.com is most likely leading the crypto charge in sports, it's not alone in that arena. Anyone who watched the Super Bowl (and didn't switch channels during commercials) saw an unusual number of crypto related ads and I have written about how Binance will sponsor the most important regional soccer championship in Brazil.
Many crypto companies are jumping in the sports universe and it doesn't look like this trend will end so soon.
Why sports?
There are a number of reasons why a crypto company would direct their marketing efforts to the sports industry, an obvious one being the fact that people love sports. Take American Football, for example. It's not played professionally in many places other than the US but still millions of people all over the world tune in to watch football matches and even more for the Super Bowl. Soccer is another example: the UEFA Champions League has fans from all countries, despite being an European tournament.
Yes, the popularity of sports is a good reason that justifies advertising investments, but there is more to it.
Reserach finds that sports fans and bettors are much more likely to be familiar with crypto than non-sport fans making them a great niche to boost the popularity of digital assets.
Another reason is that, according to Columbia Business School professor R.A. Farrokhnia, the crypto industry is "beginning to exhaust the early-adopter market". What that means is that the majority of people who are more prone to adopt crypto have done that already so now the industry needs to reach out to the "normies" out there and sports teams are mostly very ancient, respected and trusted institutions so having their brand associated to a product that is the complete opposite of that can be game-changing (no pun intended).
Wen mass adoption?
Something I heard a lot in the following weeks after the Super Bowl was "why hasn't Bitcoin exploded with all those ads?!?!?!?!". I understand where statements like that come from but it's important to understand that these things take time.
Reaching out to millions of people is important but it's the first step only. There is a lot to be done in order to actually bring those people to crypto.
Crypto needs to be made simple to them. Those of us who have been around for a couple of years tend to forget that it's not easy to get started. We tend to get cocky after we master the complexities of this crazy universe but the truth is, for most people, dealing with private keys, blockchains, gas fees and a bunch of other words that don't make any sense for "outsiders" is a nightmare.
Another thing is FUD. Crypto is getting a lot of visibility thanks to the marketing campaigns of these companies but let's not forget that all the scams, hacks and dumb .jpeg files being bought by millions get as much, if not more, attention and that's a whole different battle to be fought.
Final thoughts
I believe that the push into the world of sports is a great move for crypto and will bring some much-needed visibility, but it is only the beginning. The industry will need to build a lot of trust and become a lot more user-friendly before mass adoption really starts to take place.
It's gonna take some additional steps but I'm very optimistic that it will happen in the next few years and the early adopters will be in a very good position then.