With its partnership with FTX, the MLB, baseball’s biggest league, becomes the first of the “Big 4” major sports league in U.S. to ever formalize a partnership with a crypto exchange.
The development came just a few days after the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) announced it will offer its professional players the option to be paid in bitcoin, making it the first pro sports league in the North American region to do so. The league commissioned Canadian exchange Bitbuy to facilitate the new payment option.
With bitcoin still reeling from the price crash, it has experienced for the past days, news about its mainstream adoption such as these serve as a source of hope for its loyalists and supporters.
Partnership highlights
With the partnership, crypto exchange FTX is in for a lot of deal highlights like becoming the first-ever umpire uniform patch partner.
Under this agreement, starting with next month’s All-Star Game, all umpire uniforms will bear the FTX US logo patch throughout the season. This will be implemented not just in regular-season games but also in postseason, spring training and Jewel Event games.
Moreover, FTX will also be the first official cryptocurrency exchange brand in a major league sports team in the U.S. Also, as the partnership encompasses MLB Players Inc., the company is given the right to access group player rights for their marketing content.
FTX keeps sports partnerships running
For the last six months alone, the crypto exchange company has already spent $350-$400 million for domestic sports sponsorships, highlighted by its partnership deals with e-sports organization TSM and NBA’s Miami Heat.
FTX reportedly committed to a $135 million deal with the NBA team, making it shell out roughly $7.1 million every year for the 19-year Miami Heath deal.
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