Many lucrative cryptocurrency deals within the sports sponsorship sector took a significant downturn in 2022 due to price drops and market crashes, according to a recent industry report.
However, the study also noted that scandal surrounding FTX seemed to be the death knell of such partnerships.
GlobalData’s latest report, ‘Sports Trends and Predictions 2023 – Thematic Intelligence’, underscored that cryptocurrency’s inherent instability was always likely to be a negative factor in the industry’s future success in sports sponsorship.
The leading data and analytics company notes that, instead, sports teams will now look to partner with technology brands.
“There have always been warning signs attached to cryptocurrency, thanks to the lack of meaningful regulation and legislation associated with the industry,” said Tanveer Aujla, Analyst at GlobalData.
“Sports teams jumped at the chance to sign deals worth of millions of dollars, but are now being forced to reconsider their sponsorship strategies following the collapse of several crypto-related deals.”
He added, “The suddenness of crypto’s collapse must serve as a warning to the sports industry about the dangers of chasing the money and diving head first into deals with brands that may not exist in a year’s time.”
While crypto deals will continue to be struck in 2023, their values will be significantly lower than they would have been, and sports teams will likely be looking at partnering with technology brands instead.
“The technology industry is among the most rapidly developing in the world, and ventures such as the metaverse will see sports teams wanting to work their way into relevant deals on the ground floor. If the metaverse ever comes to fruition in a meaningful way, sports teams will want to be able to market related partnerships to their fans,” said Aujla.
GlobalData notes that the likelihood of sport sponsorship agreements centred around the metaverse is very likely to increase in the following years.
“While the metaverse is still far from a sure-fire success, the long-term stability and performance of companies involved in metaverse development has been far superior to the majority of crypto brands,” added Aujla.
