Bitcoin and the beautiful game: eToro hails landmark deal

UK-based trading platform eToro has inked a landmark advertising deal with seven Premier League footballclubs.

This will be paid in Bitcoin and will see eToro become an official club partner of Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United, Crystal Palace, Southampton, Brighton & Hove Albion, Cardiff City and Leicester City, bringing it a range of marketing opportunities including matchday LED boards, player access, tickets and digital rights.

Newcastle United’s Head of Partnerships, Dale Aitchison, says: “We are delighted to welcome eToro to our family of high-profile commercial partners. This is a leading player in an emerging industry and we are looking forward to exploring opportunities in cryptocurrency and technology together.”

Iqbal V. Gandham, UK Managing Director of eToro, comments: “As a leading multi-asset company, we are excited to be partnering with so many Premier League clubs and to make history by being the first company ever to pay for a Premier League partnership in Bitcoin.” 

He adds: “Today’s announcement is very much the first small step on a long road to football fully embracing blockchain technology. Education will be key so that industries can understand the potential, however, the openness of these Premier League clubs to taking this first step, is very exciting for everyone. Blockchain brings transparency, which means it can improve the experience for everyone who loves the ‘beautiful game’.” 

On the ‘ead son

Other football clubs have also been dipping their toes in crypto waters. Last month, for example, Coin Rivet reported that Pablo Dana, the owner of semi-professional club Gibraltar United and an investor in the cryptocurrency Quantocoin, was working on all player contracts including payment agreements in cryptocurrency.

The Gibraltar Premier Division outfit may not at first glance seem like the most obvious crypto entry point into the football world but, as Coin Rivet noted in an article about the Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange, Gibraltar was the first British jurisdiction to introduce regulations around distributed ledger technology.

And, as Dana observes, “it was the first [place that] regulated betting companies 20 years back, when everyone was seeing them as horrible. They put compliance and anti-money laundering regulations and created a platform – they have the intelligence to do the same with cryptocurrencies.”