Inside Crypto’s Multiyear Rush Into Soccer

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0:00Football clubs needed cash. Crypto companies needed credibility. And in 2020,

0:07those two problems collided and created a sponsorship gold rush.

0:15Professional football, or soccer, is a marketer's dream.

0:19Few things in global media can match its audience

0:22or the emotional connection fans have with their clubs.

0:29It cuts across languages, cultures,

0:32and borders, making it arguably the world's most accessible sport.

0:37It's also one of the last reliable ways to reach millions of people at once. In an era of social

0:43media and on demand viewing, live football remains one of television's biggest audience magnets.

0:52That attention is what makes football so valuable, and the biggest clubs are worth more than ever.

0:58But in 2020, football's commercial engine ground to a halt.

1:06"New fears tonight. The Coronavirus may be more contagious than originally thought"

1:10"Questions still remain about the virus"

1:12"Corona virus"

1:13"Corona virus"

1:15During the Covid lockdowns, football matches across Europe were halted for months. And

1:19when play did resume, stadiums remained empty for the rest of the 2020/21 season,

1:25wiping out one of the sports most important revenue streams.

1:30Kieran Maguire is Professor of Football Finance at the University of Liverpool.

1:35The losses globally in football increased significantly as as a result of Covid.

1:41Matchday income is worth 15% of Premier League income, it can be around about 30,

1:4740% in other major leagues and in minor leagues it can be more than half of total revenue.

1:53For clubs such as Manchester United which has the largest stadium capacity in the Premier League,

1:58the impact was severe with losses averaging about $4 million per game,

2:03and the pressure spread across the business.

2:06With games played behind closed doors, some sponsors renegotiated

2:10deals or delayed payments as the value of their exposure changed.

2:15In the 2019/20 season, the size of the European football market shrank by 13%. From nearly 30

2:23billion euros to just over 25 billion euros - its first contraction since the financial crisis.

2:31The pandemic cost the Premier League alone one billion pounds, or about 1.3 billion dollars,

2:36resulting in its first ever revenue decline, bringing years of growth to a sudden halt.

2:42Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies, digital assets traded through exchanges and built on blockchain

2:47networks were booming. Bitcoin led the charge and much of the market followed.

2:52This chart shows just how quickly the broader crypto market moved.

2:56The UK's first national lockdown began on March 23rd, 2020. By August 2021,

3:03as fans were beginning to return to stadiums across the UK and parts of Europe, the total

3:08cryptocurrency market had risen from $160 billion dollars to around $2 trillion dollars.

3:15Rob Wilson is the Dean at University Campus of Football Business.

3:19What clubs started to do was look, right, how can we plug that gap in our finances? Oh, look,

3:24we've got a cryptocurrency or a blockchain or a digital platform that we can start to use.

3:28So, football clubs needed sponsors and their cash, but what did crypto companies

3:33get in return? Access to something the young industry couldn't build overnight. Trust.

3:39One company embracing football is Bitpanda, a Vienna- based crypto platform with partnerships

3:44across the game, including clubs such as AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal.

3:53So, when it comes to those sponsorships, are you looking to increase brand trust,

3:59grow legitimacy, or are you actually trying to acquire customers?

4:02I'm a strong believer that one goes with the other. So,

4:05if you associate yourself with those kind of clubs,

4:08if it's in the UK Arsenal or if it's in France with Paris Saint-Germain and you also use those

4:12clubs for activation, we've integrated all of our partnerships into a TV campaign last year.

4:18So, you see that the recognition of your brand is much stronger,

4:20and I believe that we're still in the buildup phase for our brand. So,

4:24we need strong partners to leverage us up to become an even more known and trusted brand.

4:29For crypto firms, a shirt sponsor, sleeve deal, or club partnership wasn't just advertising. It was

4:36borrowed credibility, a way to sit alongside institutions that fans already trusted.

4:42I was using this 'phrase blinded by the cheque'. It was a lot of money,

4:46perceived as being relatively little risk as far as the football club was concerned, at a time when

4:52the football club was desperate for cash. So, as a consequence, it seemed like a perfect solution.

4:57Covid created the immediate revenue shock,

4:59but there was a longer-term shift happening too. Football clubs are always looking for

5:04new revenue streams. During the 2010s, they began securing hyper-specific brand

5:10partnership deals for everything from noodles and deodorant to even tractors.

5:18So, when crypto companies came looking for partners, clubs were ready to listen.

5:23And in 2020, one of football's biggest traditional sponsorship

5:26categories was also starting to come under pressure, gambling and betting.

5:32From the commencement of the 2026/2027 season, Premier League clubs are not allowed to have front

5:39of shirt deals with gambling companies. That vacuum has to be filled somewhere.

5:45During the 2025/26 Premier League season, eight clubs still had gambling companies

5:50on the front of their shirts, worth an estimated £60 million pounds a year.

5:55Cryptocurrencies will be licking their lips to an extent because

5:57they know that there is that revenue gap because of the regulation of gambling.

6:02Within a few years, clubs were signing multi-million-dollar deals across the

6:06crypto industry from blockchain platforms to major exchanges.

6:10And the data backs that up.

6:12Between 2021 and 2024, football was the biggest global category

6:17for new sponsorship deals ahead of other major sports year after year.

6:22The more popular you are, the more people want a piece of you. During the crypto boom,

6:27football became one of the industry's biggest prizes.

6:30Crypto had bought its way into football. Clubs got new money. Crypto companies got visibility,

6:36trust, and access to millions of fans. But as the boom began to fade,

6:40that bargain started to look a lot more complicated.

6:44Coming up in the next episode, shirt sponsors disappear, fan tokens plunge,

6:49regulators start asking questions.

6:52How did football's crypto boom unravel? And who was left paying the price?