Largely untapped sports sponsorship regions across Africa and Australia are seeing some recognition this week, as two major crypto exchanges made their first respective forays into sports in the continents. NFL wide receiver Dez Bryant as taking NFTs up a notch. And two recognizable names in sports are mentioned in a lawsuit regarding a recent crypto scam token.
It’s just another busy week in sports and crypto. Let’s take a look at the biggest stories over the past seven days with our second edition of 2022’s Sports Slice.
The Sports Slice
Dez Bryant Taps Chainlink In Latest NFT Endeavors
NFL wide receiver Dez Bryant has had an illustrious football career, and has been shifting his focus from on-the-field play to off-the-field development, courtesy of his Personal Corner platform that is 6 years in the making. Over the past year or so, Bryant has focused on Personal Corner having a major NFT focus – and this past week, doubled down on that stance with announced intentions of building out ‘dynamic’ NFTs, courtesy of Chainlink oracles and onboarded NFL players.
Bryant’s NFTs will change dynamically in appearance based on how respective NFL players are performing on the field each weekend. NFL players like Von Miller and ‘Hollywood’ Brown are already signed up to be a part of the platform. It’s one of the first times we’ve seen Chainlink mentioned in The Sports Slice, as the only other athlete to leverage the blockchain in this matter is NBA star LaMelo Ball, who created dynamic NFTs based on major moments in his career (i.e., earning a First Team All-NBA ballot could change the look of the NFT, etc).
Crypto.com Secures Multi-Year Deal With Australian Football League
Crypto.com is kicking off the year signing more sports deals, this time setting sights on the land down under. The crypto exchange has signed a five-year deal with the Australian Football League (AFL), and will serve as a partner for the Toyota AFL Premiership Season and NAB AFLW competitions.
The move secures the AFL as the first Australian sports league partnership for Crypto.com, and the AFLW as the first elite women’s sports competition that the exchange has sponsored globally, according to reports.
Take a look at what Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek had to say regarding the deal:
“We are committed to investing in Australia, a key market and leader in cryptocurrency adoption, contributing to our rapid growth of over 10 million users globally. The AFL and AFLW are perfect platforms to associate ourselves with Australian sports and culture. It is by far the most popular spectator sport in the country that has been played for over 150 years, a rich history that uniquely brings Australians together in a way that we are truly inspired by.”
Binance Sponsoring Africa Cup Of Nations Tournament
Crypto exchange Binance secured a deal with the Confederation of African Football to become an official partner of Afcon – the Africa Cup of Nations football tournament this year. Binance will serve as an official crypto and blockchain partner, and will also be the presenting sponsor of a variety of awards.
“With a population of 1.2 billion Africans and the prevalence of blockchain technology and its use cases, we believe the African continent could lead the future of the blockchain industry,” said Yi He, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Binance. Clearly, investing in football across the continent looks to be a largely untapped brand awareness play.
Related Reading | NFTs In A Nutshell: A Weekly Review
Chainlink has found it's way to The Sports Slice for the first time, and has bucked the traditional crypto tides in recent weeks, showing unique resiliency compared to many top 50 altocins. | Source: LINK-USD on TradingView.com
Floyd Mayweather Jr., Paul Pierce Named In Crypto Scam Lawsuit
Boxing sensation Floyd Mayweather Jr. and former NBA star Paul Pierce are named in the latest crypto scam lawsuit, which also includes long-time influencer Kim Kardashian, accusing the three of utilizing social media to dupe followers in an alleged pump-and-dump crypto scheme EthereumMax (EMAX). The three were allegedly paid in EMAX tokens for sponsoring the token and took major gains on the way up, leaving casual investors holding the bag. The class action complaint cites several social media posts from Kardashian and Pierce.
Both Kardashian and Mayweather have had regulatory bump-ins previously, as Kardashian dealt with the FDA in 2015 over a misleading morning sickness drug, and Mayweather deal with SEC troubles in 2018 that left him with over $500K in fines and an order to not promote any securities for three years.
Related Reading | Associated Press To Introduce Photograph NFT Marketplace Based On Polygon
Featured image from Pexels, Charts from TradingView.com
The writer of this content is not associated or affiliated with any of the parties mentioned in this article. This is not financial advice.