This article has been updated to include Liverpool’s denial of the Tron partnership. Tron CEO Justin Sun said in a tweet on April 24 that the Tron Foundation, the firm behind the 11th biggest cryptocurrency Tron (TRON), will reportedly partner with British professional football club Liverpool. However, a Liverpool spokesperson reportedly told Decrypt Media that “Liverpool Football Club has confirmed that it does not have a partnership with Tron.” While Sun did not include any specific details about the nature of the upcoming partnership — which has since been denied — the tweet features a short video invitation from Liverpool …

World famous tennis player Serena Jameka Williams revealed in an Instagram post published on April 17 that in 2014, she launched her investment business Serena Ventures and silently invested in over 30 companies, including major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. According to the official website of Serena Ventures, the market cap of the portfolio is over $12 billion, and the diversity of the founders of the companies in which the firm invested is 60%. The website further notes that the fund is focused on early stage companies, encourages collaboration among portfolio companies and expands partnership opportunities. According to Wikipedia, Williams won four …

The Litecoin Foundation is partnering with premier kickboxing league Glory to become the official cryptocurrency for its online merchandise platform and international events. The news was announced in an official press release from Litecoin on Feb. 26. Glory — which has signed top kickboxing heavyweights including “Dutch Lumberjack” Peter Aerts and Remy Bonjasky, aka “The Flying Gentleman” — will integrate Litecoin (LTC) into its online merchandise store, gloryshop.com. The league will also allow fans in the United States and Europe to use the cryptocurrency to purchase various Litecoin-exclusive, event-related privileges. These include “athlete meet-and-greets, backstage arena tours [...] and premium …

United States ice hockey team the LA Kings have launched a blockchain-based tool for tracking the authenticity of merchandise, executives confirmed in a press release on Feb. 20. A partnership with augmented reality (AR) startup Pro Exp Media, the AR Authentication App provides a way for fans purchasing various items to know that their products are genuine. The release did not reveal the technical workings of the app, but said it relied on various tests and would reject a piece of merchandise if it did not pass all of them. “The LA Kings pride ourselves on innovation and a drive …

South Africa’s national cricket organization briefly fell victim to scammers on Twitter and began offering a fake Bitcoin (BTC) lottery, Indian daily news outlet Indian Express reported on Jan. 14. Cricket South Africa (CSA), which has over 1 million followers, tweeted its alleged participation in the scheme in the early morning. Staff claimed the organization had begun a partnership with Luno, a United Kingdom-based cryptocurrency wallet, through which users could win a prize worth 20 BTC ($70,900). The now-deleted tweet included a Bitcoin address to which those wishing to be involved should send a 0.01 BTC, and was active for …

Disclaimer: An article from Dutch news outlet Algemeen Dagblad published in January 2019 alleges that the deal did not take place as claimed by Libereum. Cointelegraph has contacted both Elche CF and Libereum for comment. Dutch crypto firm Libereum has acquired Spanish soccer club Elche CF for $4.9 million, according to a press release published to the Libereum website Dec. 26. The acquisition marks the first step in the crypto company’s ambitions to purchase a set of international soccer clubs and make its ERC20 token, Liber, a mandatory form of payment in the stadiums of those clubs it owns. Libereum …

The Litecoin Foundation will sponsor an event of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) mixed martial arts organization, according to an announcement published Dec. 26. In the statement, the foundation said that it has become the “Official Cryptocurrency Partner” of the UFC light heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson. The Litecoin Foundation stated that the sponsorship is part of its effort to expand the adoption of digital currencies, saying: “With brands and institutions continuing to push into cryptocurrency and blockchain, this is yet another signal of this technology moving closer towards the mainstream.” Litecoin (LTC) was released in …

Kobe Bryant, twice Olympic gold medalist and NBA superstar, will appear as a guest speaker at the NiTRON Summit 2019 in San Francisco, decentralized Internet project TRON (TRX) shared exclusively with Cointelegraph Nov. 20. Basketball champion Kobe Bryant has been invited to the conference as a special guest to “share his thoughts and life experience to inspire young leaders and entrepreneurs,” the press release states. The press release notes that Bryant is a guest of TRON founder Justin Sun. Over the past several years, the crypto community has received a star-studded boost from a number of notable celebrities from around …

Soccer Legends Limited, a Hong Kong-based startup, is aiming to integrate blockchain technology into soccer, the most popular sport in the world. The project is designed to “bridge the gap between soccer superstars, youth talents and fans.” Soccer fans can use the 433 Token to support a future superstar, interact with the most famous players and to influence important soccer-related decisions. According to the company, Paul Scholes (Manchester United legend 11-times English Premier League champion) and Andriy Shevchenko (AC Milan legend, UEFA Champions League Top Scorer, Ballon d'Or winner and Ukraine’s head coach) have officially joined the project. They not …

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. …

French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) is partnering with blockchain platform Socios.com to launch a token ecosystem, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph September 11. PSG plays in the highest tier of France’s soccer league and has been hailed as the country’s “most popular” team. Socios describes itself as a digitized, tokenized form of the “Socios” crowd-management concept of Real Madrid & FC Barcelona — “socios” means member or associate in Spanish. The platform is powered by a sports blockchain venture dubbed chiliZ, which has the backing of high profile crypto industry players that include crypto exchange Binance. …

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, …