Innovational Olympics: athlete sponsored in cryptocurrency
Amidst the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, a skater from Canada Ted-Jan Bloemen tells on Twitter that he had received sponsorship in cryptocurrency funds and thus had become the first ever crypto-sponsored athlete.
I’m very excited to be the first ever #Crypto Sponsored Athlete. Thanks @CEEK #VirtualReality and @Ong_Social for being at the forefront of technology and this great achievement. Looking forward to a great relationship and the exciting times ahead. pic.twitter.com/mCHbNzkKW8
— Ted-Jan Bloemen (@TedJan) January 31, 2018
This has become possible thanks to a virtual reality-related company and a digital decentralized social media platform. It’s unclear in which cryptocurrency exactly the sponsorship was made, but most media mention Bitcoin and “cryptocurrencies” in connection with this event. It’s safe to assume Bitcoin was at least partly used.
The whole story reminds of that Turkish football (soccer) player who accepted a sum of bitcoins as part of this footballer’s employment agreement. But this was not a sponsorship campaign which makes the statement made by Ted-Jan Bloemen still valid. By the way, this skater has already taken the silver medal at the men's 5000 metres speed skating competition. Sven Kramer from Netherlands was the first.
Another recent sport news related to Bitcoin contains Arsenal, the celebrated British football club that decided to support a betting company CashBet, which is once again not a sponsorship campaign. The upcoming World Football Cup 2018 in Russia might become another place where the cryptocurrency market will suddenly find allies who popularize it by their promotional campaigns.