Sports sponsorship helps legitimize crypto in Australia – Coinjar exec
Sponsorship of high-profile sports and teams could be the key to legitimizing the crypto industry to the general public, according to Luke Ryan, head of content at Australian crypto exchange CoinJar.
In May 2021, the exchange became the first crypto company in Australia to sponsor an Australian Football League (AFL) club by partnering with the Melbourne Demons.
Speaking to Cointelegraph at the Australian Crypto Convention on September 18, Ryan said the AFL partnership changed the discussion around cryptocurrency in the country and that “it gives cryptocurrency a greater sense of permanence.”
“Maybe before this real push into the sporting mainstream, it was very easy for a lot of people to think ‘oh, this cryptocurrency thing, it’s going to go away, or it’s already gone,'” he said.
“It’s a real statement of intent from the industry, not necessarily about ‘we’re sponsoring this team and then we got X number of new users’, it’s more about us sponsoring this team because we want to show the world we’re companies with consequences, with plans and long-term visions, and one way to show that is to align ourselves with a truly established presence.”
Ryan believes sports partnerships also provide the opportunity for crypto companies to break new ground in terms of user base and adoption.
He noted that part of what drew CoinJar to partner with an AFL team was the idea of promoting crypto and exchanges “beyond the established true believers who already have their platforms of choice.”
“At a certain point, you’re all just hacking into the same market,” he added.
“It’s a really ongoing question for cryptocurrency as a whole, how do we go from this 5 to 10% that we’re talking now to 20 to 50%, and we’ve started to think a little bit more about what that might look like start getting more actively involved in sponsorship.”
The partnership between CoinJar and the Melbourne Demons has also meant other teams and the AFL itself have learned more about crypto, which Ryan believes has made the asset more normalized for the organisation.
“It’s meant that they’ve had space to ask questions and look at it a bit more and say ‘ah, that’s quite interesting, we could really use that to create a better relationship with the fans.’
“I think it leads to a much more open attitude to things like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and how they can be leveraged, it’s all still primordial in the AFL sphere, but I certainly know there are very active discussions the AFL has had going.”
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Ryan says the speculative nature of crypto is “arguably what has gotten a lot of people into it,” but it’s not what will create a sustainable future entity. He added that “at some point there has to be this transition to actual products that people will use.”
AFL’s first 3,800 strong NFT collection in August sold out in under 12 hours and raised an estimated $130,000 or more USD Coin (USDC). The AFL has already stated plans to expand its crypto offering to match day events, tickets and the chance to meet players in the Metaverse.
