The cryptobusiness they are already a reality in sport. In this month, the Los Angeles Lakers released a name for their stadium after 22 years, going from being the Staples Center to the Arena Crypto.com, while other clubs such as Inter Milan, the current Italian soccer champion, modified the main sponsorship of their jersey to sell to partners.com and promote their fan tokens.
Sponsorships, businesses and products with digital currencies are increasingly common in the sports industry, although there is still some uncertainty regarding issues such as the lack of familiarity of the common consumer and the precarious existence of digital regulations, experts explain to El Economista.
“Before exploring all of this, it would be worth taking a look at how many people do business with cryptocurrencies, and I mean ordinary people, because for large capital companies it can be very normal, but not for street people, because they do not know where to buy cryptocurrencies or how to make transactions with them. Today it is something of a niche and it would be necessary to see how niche it is ”, points out Francisco San José, professor of Sports Marketing at the School of Sports Sciences of the Anahuac University.
In some destinations, the public response is more favorable, such as in the United States, where, according to an academic study, 47% of sports fans feel familiar with the sports. cryptocurrencies, making it “a very important market for these companies that after these years of pandemic grew so much and are willing to gain legitimacy and brand presence”, defines Daniel Cabrera, technology and telecommunications analyst at The Competitive Intelligence Unit.
One of the points in favor is that the pandemic promoted the use of technology among the common citizen, in addition to the advancement in the technology of mobile devices. This creates a circle in which consumers will also begin to demand better options related to crypto businesses in sport.
“Although the pandemic gave a push and forced us to adopt technology and incorporate ourselves into digital systems of all kinds, later a consumer push will come. Today
We are already talking about teams that want to get their tokens, their NFTs, that after a crisis seek to finance themselves, we have people eager to get involved in the participation of decisions of their clubs, in the interaction with their teams or players and as people respond to all this, the government will have to respond , then it will be a push from the consumer for regulation. The outlook is still modest, but it can be accelerated a lot at any moment, ”adds Cabrera, an economist graduated from ITAM.
The benefits of cryptobusiness in sports they have different edges. It is not only the sale of digital merchandise such as tokens, but also a possibility of ticketing, the sale of waste and even the transfer of transcendental information internally through the blockchain.
“Everything points to the cryptobusiness They are going to be one of the main sources of income for sports institutions or at least one of the important ones in the coming years, perhaps together with the issue of gambling, two very atypical sources of income that did not exist some time ago and today they begin to take more strength (…) The fans are increasingly looking to interact with their teams and have some digital memorabilia, there is also accepting payments in cryptocurrencies at the stadium, to buy tickets or in online stores ”, adds Francisco San José.
Sport is a golden boat for crypto business companies, which are gradually getting more involved to exploit the potential. Dr. Ernesto Piedras, general director of The Competitive Intelligence Unit, highlights that in Mexico the creative industry represents 7.4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and in the United States 15%, including all the paraphernalia of shows such as the NFL, NBA or MLB.
However, one of the negative points for the development of crypto businesses today is the lack of a legal framework, explains Piedras: “We have to continue building the legal corpus because until now we continue with a Bank of Mexico framework that is not enough to be fully conducive. Progress has already been made, there are already legal frameworks that take them out of a territory that could be illegal or informal, but it would be good to have a little more progress. Central banks are usually slow and reluctant for this adoption, the tradition in economic science and practice never contemplated cryptocurrency, so there may be a slowdown in the evolution of these businesses “.
In Mexico, Santos Laguna and Atlas, owned by the Orlegui Group, signed a commercial link with Socios.com (the same one that has Inter Milan) for the generation of their fan tokens in the near future, while Chivas already launched them in 2021 and Necaxa put them 1% ownership for sale through the sale of an NFT in the summer. For its part, Tigres signed with Bitso, which became the first cryptocurrency brand to sponsor a Mexican club, with a view to even paying player salaries with digital currencies in the not too distant future.
“There are many lines of business that, well exploited, could leave money, but I continue to insist on seeing how big that niche is, because I do not doubt that in a few years cryptocurrencies will become more common in everyday use, but today it is a very limited use. of them. It would be necessary to assess for each of the teams or leagues what size these niches have because it may be that by wanting to enter something of this type it ends up costing you more than what you can obtain for the investments you have to make, “says San José with regarding, specifically, the cases in Mexico.
Currently, players like Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo have received part of their salary in cryptocurrencies, so the future of these businesses in 2022 looks robust: “My forecast is that they will continue to grow, they will continue to close multi-year and millionaire deals In terms of advertising, platforms, new collaboration strips will be created and the most important leagues, such as the NBA, NFL or the Champions League, will be permeated with greater security. We will see what crypto has in store for us also in the World Cup (Qatar 2022), that will be very important, and see the response of legislators and consumers ”, concludes Daniel Cabrera.
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Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx