The world of sport and cryptocurrency has collided. Nowadays, there are sports teams and even individual athletes endorsing or being sponsored by crypto. Exchanges and bitcoin wallet providers have been using the mass audiences watching sport to put their offerings in mainstream sight. Some teams are even accepting bitcoin as a payment method for game tickets, and thus, encouraging their fanbase to adopt crypto.
When sports fans see their heroes advocating crypto, it removes some fears about using bitcoin and increases interest in it. Suddenly, not only does crypto have a benefit to them if they want an easy way to buy match tickets, but the everyday sports fan may not be as reluctant to see what the hype is about.
In the NFL, a number of players have been active in advocating bitcoin usage.
Russel Okung
Russel Okung is a Super Bowl champion and a bitcoin champion. His main bitcoin advocacy comes from his twitter account and directs many of his tweets to fellow professionals and fans. He informs them about the benefits of bitcoin and even receives his salary in bitcoin. Moving on from Twitter, Okung is now organising and running bitcoin events.
Not everyone can get their salary paid in bitcoin, in fact, it can cause quite a lot of difficulty for employers due to taxation reasons. Yet, that doesn’t mean owning a bitcoin wallet online is not worth it; there are plenty of businesses now accepting bitcoin. Take a look at the bitcoin wallet experience on offer with Luno to tap into these benefits.
Matt Barkley
This Buffalo Bills Quarterback and was a headline maker after striving to be paid in bitcoin. However, Matt is not just about bitcoin, he also promotes ether and is interested in bitcoin mining. Some say he is a bitcoiner that just likes to play in the NFL on weekends.
Richard Sherman
Another Super Bowl winner, Richard Sherman, is a player for the San Francisco 49ers. He joined the bitcoin revolution early in 2014 by enabling his fans to buy merchandise from his official website in bitcoin. Since then he has worked as a spokesperson for crypto companies, receives wages in bitcoin and continues to wave the bitcoin flag.
Sidney Rice
Another NFL player to have been heavily involved in bitcoin is Sidney Rice. He joined a bit later than some of the other names above, but since converting to crypto he has started a new role as an advisor to a bitcoin ATM company called CoinMine.
Final Thoughts
Unlike some sports endorsements, these NFL players are actually part of a movement and believe in the businesses they are promoting. They are helping cryptocurrency companies and the products they offer to reach everyday people, rather than staying unknown and limited to fintech-savvy circles. The combination of bitcoin and sport can only be a good thing.
