The Portland Trail Blazers, an American professional basketball team competing in the National Basketball Association (NBA), is moving into the cryptocurrency industry with a new partnership. The NBA announced Thursday that the Trail Blazers has landed the league’s first jersey patch sponsorship program with StormX, a blockchain company allowing users to earn crypto rewards by completing micro-tasks or shopping at global partner stores online. Fresh, groundbreaking, revolutionary. We’re excited to announce we are joining forces with @stormxio, the first cryptocurrency jersey patch partner in the NBA! https://t.co/hAHDdMABDA pic.twitter.com/ZWpmp9k2wr — Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) July 1, 2021 As part of the …

In a statement posted on the club website on Thursday, the Eredivisie side, which finished third in the 2020/2021 Dutch football season, announced crypto broker Bitcoin Meester as its exclusive and official cryptocurrency partner until mid-2024. According to the announcement, the sponsorship deal with be finalized fully in Bitcoin, with the Dutch club stating its intentions to keep the BTC sum on its balance sheet. For AZ’s commercial director Michael Koster, the appeal of Bitcoin and crypto is undeniable hence the club’s decision to adopt BTC. “The cryptocurrency market is booming, with an exponential growth of users in recent years,” …

Cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com has announced it will partner with Formula 1 in its racing series this year. In an announcement today, Formula 1 said Crypto.com would be the new global and inaugural partner for its 2021 Sprint series, scheduled to begin on July 17. As part of the agreement — which CNBC reported to be $100 million — the exchange will become the racing series’ official cryptocurrency sponsor and nonfungible token, or NFT, partner. “We will rely heavily on [Crypto.com’s] expertise as we explore the world of cryptocurrency, an area we are very interested in, and this will be the …

Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady and Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen are the latest celebrities to reaffirm the growing adoption of the cryptocurrency industry. West Realm Shires Services, FTX Trading Limited and Blockfolio, three companies behind major global cryptocurrency exchange business FTX, announced Tuesday a long-term partnership with Brady and Bündchen. As part of the deal, the legendary football player and model will each take equity stakes in FTX Trading and will receive crypto. Brady will serve as an ambassador for FTX, while Bündchen will take on the role of FTX’s environmental and social initiatives advisor, working on initiatives to …

Blockchain-based sports platform Chiliz has partnered with the Portuguese Football Federation to release fan tokens on Socios. In a Thursday announcement from Socios, the platform said it will be dropping tokens for the Portugal national football team, also known as A Seleção or “The Selection,” within the next few days for local fans. As with previously tokenized sports franchises, the digital collectibles are minted on the Chiliz blockchain and allow token holders to vote in polls and earn VIP rewards. “The launch of the $POR Fan Token will allow us to create new ways of reaching our supporters and interact …

The German Football Association (DFB) has officially announced the debut of national soccer team nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in partnership with a major blockchain-based fantasy soccer game provider Sorare. As part of an official license agreement, the DFB will create digital collectible cards on the Ethereum blockchain of 18 players on the German national team through Sorare’s platform. According to an announcement from Sorare, the cards will be available for use in Sorare’s Global Fantasy Football game for the Euro 2020 soccer championship. By issuing player NFT cards on Sorare’s platform, the DFB aims to find new revenue streams as well …

The Canadian Elite Basketball League will be allowing players from its seven teams to accept a portion of their salaries in Bitcoin starting next week. According to a Thursday announcement, the Canadian Elite Basketball League, or CEBL, has partnered with Toronto-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitbuy to convert part of basketball players’ existing salaries from Canadian dollars to Bitcoin (BTC) on request. The league said it will arrange for the funds to be delivered to the players’ personal crypto wallets. More than 70 players on the active roster from the Edmonton Stingers, Fraser Valley Bandits, Guelph Nighthawks, Hamilton Honey Badgers, Ottawa Blackjacks, …

Landon Cassill, a professional race car driver in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series, will be receiving part of his salary in Bitcoin and Litecoin as part of a sponsorship with crypto broker Voyager. According to a Thursday report from the Associated Press, Voyager has finalized a 19-year agreement to sponsor Cassill starting this weekend at the NASCAR race at the Nashville Superspeedway. Cassill said the firm would pay for the deal entirely in crypto, with a "portfolio of various digital assets" that includes Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (LTC). The NASCAR driver was reportedly already “very active” in the Litecoin market as well …

Socios, the blockchain-based platform responsible for tokenizing many popular sports franchises, has said the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team will be joining its roster. In a Thursday announcement from Socios, the platform said as part of the partnership the 76ers, or the Sixers, will integrate branding from the fan token site across the physical and digital space. Socios will appear on screens in the team’s home venue, the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, as well as on its website and social media. Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of Socios and blockchain-based sports platform Chiliz, said this was the first time the platform had …

Soccer fan tokens emerged as an offshoot of the tokenization craze in cryptocurrency sometime around 2019. Essentially acting as tokenized shares of influence, fan tokens give supporters of sports organizations the chance to take part in club polls, win unique prizes, and gain a small say in club decisions which are designed to spur increased fan engagement but are often only aesthetic in nature. But despite the seemingly superficial nature of fan tokens, their prevalence only went from strength to strength as the years went by, as major European football clubs such as Barcelona, AC Milan, Manchester City, Paris St. …

With the Euro 2020 championship in progress, blockchain-based fantasy soccer game Sorare has announced the licensing agreement for a national sports association to issue nonfungible tokens of its players. In an announcement today, Sorare said the France Football Federation, or FFF, had launched its own line of player nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, prior to the team’s match against Germany on Tuesday. The French National Team — often called “The Blues” for the color of their shirts — is currently competing in the 2020 Union of European Football Associations European Football Championship. The Euro 2020 tournament was postponed last year due …

Football: It’s a sport filled with magic, memorable moments, and passionate fans who devote their lives to supporting their team. And now, a long-term project is giving supporters a whole new way of collecting memorabilia. Shirtum is a nonfungible token platform that allows footballers to create NFTs reflecting some of their biggest milestones — powerfully telling the story of iconic moments in their careers that will go down in history. Fans will be able to compete for the chance to own limited-edition tokens in their very own personalized gallery, with blockchain technology being used to guarantee the authenticity, traceability and …