Many major sports leagues have begun to pay their athletes in cryptocurrencies. At the top of this list is the NBA, which recently became the first professional sports league to accept cryptocurrency. The Dallas Mavericks are being paid in Bitcoin, and they aren’t alone—the Sacramento Kings have also joined the trend of paying players in cyber dollars.visit here
Cryptocurrency is a great way for players to invest their money, but it’s also an excellent way to pay foreign athletes who may not want their earnings subject to international exchange rates that can be difficult or impossible to predict. With cryptocurrency, you don’t have that problem; many people believe it’s more stable than a traditional currency, even if cryptocurrency values and cryptocurrency prices are somewhat unpredictable at this early stage of development.
So, which sports are using blockchain and crypto to pay athletes?
Table of Contents
NBA
The NBA has four teams that are accepting cryptocurrency as payment for tickets and merchandise. These teams include the Atlanta Hawks, Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks, and Sacramento Kings. In addition to this, the Dallas Mavericks have also teamed up with BitPay to allow customers to buy season tickets with Bitcoin.
FIFA
FIFA is a prominent example of an organization getting involved in the use of cryptocurrency as a form of prize money. Although FIFA has yet to make any officially announced plans for using crypto, it has partnered with eToro, a trading exchange platform also used by UFC and La Liga, to offer $500,000 worth of bitcoin as its prize for the eWorld Cup tournament held this year.
While this is not an official partnership with FIFA per se, it does show that some major organizations connected to football are more than open to using cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as a form of prize money. The question remains if other major sports organizations such as UEFA will follow in FIFA’s footsteps and begin offering cryptocurrency payments anytime soon.
NFL
While the NFL hasn’t officially started paying their athletes in BTC, some have used cryptocurrencies. For example, the Philadelphia Eagle’s running back, DeSean Jackson, has made it known that he would like to be paid in Bitcoin; however, this decision is ultimately up to the team and league.
In October 2019, the Dallas Cowboys became the first NFL team to accept Bitcoin for ticket purchases; that same month, the Miami Dolphins received a $5 million sponsorship deal from Litecoin.
In addition to these examples of Bitcoin use by players and teams within the NFL, there are other crypto-related businesses within professional football. For example:
- Current Washington Redskins cornerback Josh Norman launched Star Coin Ventures LLC., which invests in multiple cryptocurrencies (including Ethereum). At one point while he was with Carolina Panthers, Norman wore cleats with “Ethereum” written on them during a game. Norman has also partnered with CryptoKaiju—a UK-based cryptocurrency toy company—to release an Ethereum-backed collectible figure called “Josh The OG.”
- Former New York Giants defensive end Israel Idonije partnered with FanChain–a crypto token for sports fans–to launch FanWallet App for Android devices (the iOS version is still pending).
MLB
The Major League Baseball (MLB), which recently announced a partnership with Lucid Sight, a virtual reality, and blockchain technology company, stands to be the first major sports league to dive into the cryptocurrency markets. Lucid Sight plans to create and sell digital collectibles for MLB players in Ethereum, a popular cryptocurrency. The company will introduce its product as early as March, with an MLB-themed game that allows users to buy, sell and trade digital collectibles of baseball players.
Lucid Sight aims to capitalize on the fact that sports fans want their favorite player’s trading cards and memorabilia that they can show off online, according to Randy Saaf, co-founder of Lucid Sight. He further explained how the use of cryptocurrencies benefits both companies: “It’s a win-win for us because we’re bringing them into this new economy around our sport.”
In addition to Lucid Sight’s introduction of virtual baseball cards in Ethereum, Major League Baseball Advanced Media Ltd., MLB’s interactive media and Internet company division also started accepting Bitcoin payments for tickets back in 2014 through BitPay. This is not surprising since there seems to be an increasing number of people who are willing to use cryptocurrencies as payment.
NHL
- The National Hockey League (NHL) is the latest major sports organization to join the crypto revolution. The league recently announced that it would be paying players’ bonuses in Bitcoin, rather than traditional dollars or euros.
- A few simple lines of code have been all it takes for the NHL to make this happen—a proof-of-concept transaction was completed earlier this month, and more are being tested as we speak. “We looked at our business and said, ‘How can we use blockchain?’” says Andrew Dittmore, an NHL executive who has overseen the project.
- At launch, players will receive one token for every US$20 earned in bonuses. These tokens will have no monetary value outside of their ability to be traded on Ethereum’s blockchain network; doing so is called a “smart contract.”
As time progresses and blockchain technology becomes more widespread, we will see other major sports embracing crypto. They too will then pay their athletes in cryptocurrencies.
