In yet another sports-crypto collaboration, a Cleveland professional basketball team along with its esports league affiliate, Cavs Legion GC, has partnered with UnitedCoin. The partnership would create more awareness for the crypto project and also bring cryptocurrency and blockchain technology closer to the people.
Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are gradually gaining widespread acceptance among different sectors, and the sports industry seems to be appreciating the many benefits associated with the dynamic industry.
UnitedCoin to Use Partnership to Create Awareness
According to a press release by the National Basketball Association (NBA) on Monday (July 15, 2019), Cleveland Cavaliers (the Cavs) NBA 2k league, Cavs Legion, collaborated with cryptocurrency firm, UnitedCoin. The partnership would see Cavs Legion adopt UnitedCoin as its official cryptocurrency partner.
Also, the alliance among the trio would create more publicity for UnitedCoin and provide the professional basketball team the means to capitalize on the fintech sector via cryptocurrency.
In addition, in the NBA 2k League, the United Coin logo will be displayed on the home court of the Cavs League during gameplay. Also, the team would push UnitedCoin on all its social media handles.
Commenting on the partnership, Cleveland Cavaliers’ President of Business Operations, Nic Barlage, said that the reason for collaborating with the cryptocurrency company was to stay abreast of happenings in the dynamic industry and create a better avenue for its fans.
Furthermore, Barlage said:
“We are happy to team up with UnitedCoin, a like-minded company motivated by innovative technology to help us do that and are excited about how this partnership will bring blockchain technology to life for our fans.”
Derek Jones, Co-founder and CEO of UnitedCoin also saw the coalition as an avenue to bring cryptocurrency and blockchain technology closer to fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Cavs Legion and also enlighten them on the benefits of cryptocurrency.
Additional details about the partnership include LED signage inside the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, the arena of the basketball team, during the games, and branding opportunities in the forthcoming 2019-20 season.
Sports Franchises Adopting Cryptocurrency
There has been an increasing healthy partnership between the sports industry and the cryptocurrency sector. Blockonomi recently reported the collaboration between American football team, Miami Dolphins and Litecoin. According to the report, the team adopted Litecoin as its official cryptocurrency.
Also, Portuguese football club, S.L. Benfica, became the first major European football team to accept cryptocurrency as a payment method, following its partnership with the cryptocurrency payment platform, Utrust. The collaboration enables Benfica fans to purchase merchandise and tickets using bitcoin, ether, and Utrust’s token, UTK.
In December 2018, Litecoin announced the sponsorship of an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event that took place on December 29, 2018. Per the report at the time, the litecoin was leveraging on the millions of UFC viewers to promote cryptocurrency.
Crypto Payments for Athletes
Apart from partnerships and sponsorships between the nascent industry and the sports sector, there have also been cases of players being paid in crypto. Back in early 2018, Ted-Jan Bloemen, a skater, became the first Olympian to be paid in cryptocurrency.
Also, Gibraltar United F.C., a Premier Division of the Gibraltar Football league, entered into a partnership that included payment of players’ salaries in cryptocurrency.
While some players are getting paid in cryptocurrency courtesy of their clubs, some prominent players in the National Football League (NFL) are trying hard to get the league to pay them in crypto.
Matt Barkley, Quarterback for Buffalo Bills, wanted the San Francisco 49ers and Cincinnati Bengals to pay his contract in bitcoin. The quarterback later revealed via Twitter that he was already mining bitcoin. Another NFL player, Russell Okung, also made a request on Twitter to be paid in bitcoin.