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Premier League Club Southampton F.C. Secures Learncrypto.com Sponsorship

source-logo  beincrypto.com 24 September 2021 20:51, UTC

A non-profit website called learncrypto.com has inked a deal with Southampton Football Club to sponsor the training kit for the first and B teams.

Learncrytpo.com, a non-profit crypto education website partly funded by the Yolo Group, will be sponsoring the training kits for the Southampton F.C. first and B teams, which will be seen for the first time when Southampton clashes with Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday. Southampton’s main sponsor Sportsbet.io also partly funds learncrypto.com.

Learncrypto.com seeks to make cryptocurrency accessible to everyone, by allowing users to access courses offering information about blockchain and cryptocurrency. Sarah Batter, marketing and partnerships director at Southampton, voiced the club’s support of learncrypto’s work in giving confidence and foundational knowledge to those who want to explore the world of crypto in the future. Southampton began exploring fintech sponsorships since April 2021, and announced a three-year extension to its contract with The Coingaming Group, Yolo’s former designation. The deal was called the largest agreement in the club’s history.

Three Premier League clubs showcasing crypto sponsorships

Crypto awareness in the English Premier League is increasing. In August 2021, Watford Football Club, another top-flight English team, included a Dogecoin logo on the sleeve, an initiative which was part of a sponsorship deal with gambling company Stake.com. Watford also sports a Shibu Inu logo on its shirts, because of a deal penned with Stake.com, a crypto casino, and sports betting platform. The previous season saw Watford sporting the bitcoin logo on its kit’s shirt sleeve. Australian cryptocurrency exchange CoinJar is sponsoring the shirt for newly-promoted club Brentford for the 2021/22 Premier League Season. Arsenal F.C., Aston Villa F.C., Everton F.C, Leeds, and Manchester City have all launched fan tokens for the 2021/22 season to permit holders to access fan-related membership perks like voting on club decisions, rewards and unique experiences.

These tokens are fungible, meaning that they can be exchanged for sports club merchandise, for example, just like fiat money. Fan tokens derive their value from how much value fans place on being able to participate in club activities and earn rewards.

Crypto taking off in sports industry

The Southampton partnership with learncrypto comes at a time when cryptocurrency companies are investing in sports teams and brands sponsorships, to reach a more mainstream audience through exposure to a global sports team fanbase. Most recently, FTX and F1 Team Mercedes have struck a multi-season deal to ensure FTX exposure to F1’s global audiences by emblazoning the FTX logo on Team Mercedes’ cars and drivers. The Ultimate Fighting Championship, the American mixed martial arts organization, has also recently penned a deal with Crypto.com worth $175M. Such sponsorship deals have been met with scrutiny by governmental regulators for promoting financial products which are said to be nascent.

The regulators are beginning to expand their regulatory scrutiny to also encompass crypto-based gambling companies.

beincrypto.com