SL Benfica Offers Cryptocurrency Payment Option for Online Store

Published at: June 6, 2019

Major Portuguese sports club SL Benfica now accepts cryptocurrency for merchandise and tickets, Verdict reports on June 6.

According to the report, SL Benfica partnered with cryptocurrency service Utrust to provide the new payments option. Fans and customers can now buy tickets any products on the club’s website with Utrust’s native token (UTK), or with top cryptocurrencies bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH).

Utrust purportedly supports instant crypto-to-fiat conversions, allowing SL Benfica to essentially pocket its revenue directly in cash. The press release explains that this allows the club to avoid issues around the volatility of cryptocurrencies, while still making use of blockchain technology for conducting secure transactions.

SL Benfica reportedly has around 7 million fans active on social media, and around double that amount of total fans worldwide. Benfica says it is aiming to further grow its fanbase with its new crypto payments option, hyping up the new payment to fans as being the cheapest, safest, and fastest option for online transactions.

SL Benfica CEO Domingos Soares de Oliveira commented on its significant digital fanbase, saying:

“We recognise that many of our supporters are now digital users first, so we want to be ahead of the curve when it comes to adopting novel technologies and giving our supporters the best online experience.”

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, English Premier League football team West Ham United has partnered with the blockchain platform Socios.com to create a “fan token ecosystem.” The fan tokens will be used to encourage spectator engagement via token-based polls, rewards and games, and merch available on the Socios platform.

Tags
Blockchain
Ethereum
Cryptocurrencies
Tokens
Social Media
Portugal
Sport
United Kingdom
Related Posts
Italian Soccer Club Juventus Follows France’s Paris Saint-Germain to Launch ‘Fan Token’
Major league Italian soccer club Juventus announced Monday, September 24, it will launch its own cryptocurrency “fan token,” two weeks after a similar announcement from Paris Saint-Germain. The product of a partnership with “blockchain-based fan engagement platform” Socios.com, the Italian club aims to release its “Juventus Official Fan Token” as soon as Q1 next year. Like France’s Saint-Germain, which revealed its Fan Token plans with Socios earlier this month, Juventus aims to use the tradeable asset principally for fan voting and polling. The club currently ranks top in Italy and number two worldwide, with a fanbase reportedly topping 60 million. …
Blockchain / Sept. 24, 2018
Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Team to Hold Giveaway of Player Crypto Tokens via ETH
The Los Angeles Dodgers, a U.S. professional baseball team, will hold a giveaway of crypto-based athlete tokens at the end of this month, according to an official press release on Dodger Insider September 7. The statement reports that Dodger fans will be able to get tokens — representing Dodgers players — convertible to Ethereum (ETH) during the game against the San Diego Padres scheduled on September 21. During the so-called “Digital Bobblehead Night,” guests will be able to download tokens of such athletes as pitcher Clayton Kershaw, third baseman Justin Turner, and Curaçaoan pitcher Kenley Jansen. As the statement explains, …
Blockchain / Sept. 8, 2018
Reddit to reportedly tokenize karma points and onboard 500M new users
American social media giant, Reddit, may soon convert users’ karma points into Ethereum-based (ERC-20) tokens and onboard 500 million new crypto users in the process, according to a newly hired Reddit engineer. A series of tweets made by Reddit engineer, Rahul, highlights Reddit’s efforts to improve user interaction through various cryptocurrency initiatives. As Cointelegraph reported in July 2021, the platform had launched its own layer-2 rollup using Arbitrum technology for its rewards points, named Community Points. According to the website: “Your Community Points exist on the blockchain, independently of Reddit, where they can only be controlled by you (just like …
Adoption / Nov. 6, 2021
Socios to launch fan token for major Ukrainian esports organization
Natus Vincere, a Ukrainian multi-game organization, has announced plans to launch a fan token on blockchain-based platform Socios. According to a Nov. 4 announcement, the token will enable a number of new fan engagement opportunities, including the right to vote in polls as well as the chance to earn unique rewards linked to the organization. The maximum supply of fan tokens will be capped at 5 million coins, with a limited number of tokens available at a fixed price of $1. An initial flash sale is expected to take place in the coming months, Socios said. Following the flash sale, …
Technology / Nov. 4, 2020
New Partnership Aims to Bring Blockchain Sports Tokens to the NFL, MLB
American sports fans could soon be using blockchain-based tokens to interact with their favorite teams. Blockchain sports firm Chiliz has partnered with major marketing agency Lagardere Sports and Entertainment, according to a press release on Feb. 17. Chiliz CEO Alex Dreyfus told Cointelegraph that — as part of the partnership — Lagardere’s sales team will present Chiliz and its blockchain-based fan interaction system Socios to new sports teams, leagues and sports federations. Dreyfus explained that, since Lagardere has a major presence in the United States, it will help expose Chiliz and Socios to teams in major sports leagues such as …
Blockchain / Feb. 17, 2020