The world’s most prestigious soccer competition joins Crypto.com expanding roster of sports sponsorship arrangements
Despite the fact that cryptocurrency trading has been mostly prohibited in Qatar since 2018, Crypto.com is expected to attract a larger foreign audience given the prominence of soccer on the international scene. FIFA, the worldwide governing organization for many major soccer competitions, has announced that cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com will be an official sponsor of the upcoming World Cup, which will be held in Qatar from June 12 to July 15.
Based on Crypto.com’s agreements with other institutions throughout the world, FIFA Chief Commercial Officer Kay Madati believes the agreement will aid in the growth of the games “on a worldwide scale.” In November, the exchange announced a 20-year agreement to rename the Staples Center, a sports and entertainment arena in Los Angeles, as the Crypto.com Arena for the next 20 years. Crypto.com has also entered into a $25 million partnership with the Australian Football League, secured a $100 million sponsorship arrangement with Formula 1, and struck a 10-year $175 million sponsorship agreement with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Given the popularity of soccer on the international stage, Crypto.com is likely to attract an even larger international audience than it already does in Qatar, where trading cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) has been effectively prohibited since the country’s central bank announced the ban in 2018 — and which was reaffirmed by the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority in January 2020 — More than 3.5 billion people tuned in to witness the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, with more than a billion tuning in to see the final between France and Croatia.
“No sport brings the world together like football, and no sporting event brings the world together the way FIFA World Cup does,” Crypto.com CMO Steven Kalifowitz told CoinDesk in a statement. “Only a few brands have the privilege to participate as official sponsors, and we jumped at the opportunity to be the first brand to represent the crypto industry in this historic month-long event.”
