With their implementation in the majority of industries, the sports industry is one of the best for the crypto market, considering that some companies have sponsorships with some of the biggest stadiums and teams. Some of the biggest arenas in the USA have crypto in their name, which is a huge thing considering that it still needs to be regulated.
Other industries connected with football are also using crypto for some processes. You can now find NFL odds that you can wager on with cryptocurrencies even without providing any ID, so your information is much safer. There are new regulations regarding the league and the blockchain, but it’s mostly good news.
NFL Player Salary
The first big news released in 2021 was that some players would take their salary in cryptocurrency instead of regular fiat currency. Some of the biggest names in the game decided to get into the market and have their share.
Tom Brady is one of them that decided to invest in the FTX exchange platform. He probably took some money out of the platform before it crashed at the end of 2022.
Aaron Rogers decided to get paid in BTC but only for a portion of his salary, but he also made a deal with Cash App, which was probably a great way to compensate for any losses.
Even Odell Beckham got over $4 million in crypto in 2021. Most of these players have their own NFT collections, making them even more money.
NFL NFT
Even if some players from the NFL earn a few million per year only on salary, they could probably make even more money through NFTs. At the beginning of the NFT era, everyone took the opportunity to get involved, and the same thing happened with NFL players and things related to the league. For example, people started making trading cards like we used to trade in the NFT format.
Things changed almost two years later, in 2022 when the league decided to allow NFTs, but they can’t include club and league logos. This isn’t concerning a lot because most of them are not even using logos; they mostly focus on players or animations.
The NFL uses this as a marketing opportunity, and people can now collect their official NFTs of players and assemble their own teams. This is working well for them even when the crypto market isn’t very stable.
NFL Sponsorships
The league is trying to stay away from the negative news that is happening around the crypto market, and they are doing it by using blockchain as their main focus. Even if people heard about blockchain because of Bitcoin, their official statement is that you can’t use cryptocurrency as a sponsor, but you can use blockchain companies.
Promotions of coins are still banned, which is expected because the government still didn’t regulate and probably won’t do anything until it seems like a good idea for the country. On the other hand, blockchain companies are using this opportunity to get more eyes on them, and it’s working quite well.
NFL Crypto Future
Cryptocurrency and blockchain have a certain future in the sports industry, and football is one of them. Blockchain companies are mostly invested in motorsport by buying arenas and sponsorship, but the NFL is open to suggestions.
Having their players get paid among a small group of athletes worldwide that did the same was a big statement. This will probably change in the future when there’s more positive crypto news.
A lot will depend on 2023 when major changes are expected, one of them being the ETH 2.0 reaching its full potential by getting to that number 1 spot on the market.
There will be more investments in the league by these companies, but it’s hard to predict which one of them is here to stay. Most of them are losing money, but the goal is to get out there and expose cryptocurrencies to the public.