After renaming the Staples Arena in a $700 million deal in November, Singapore-based crypto exchange Crypto.com will become an official partner of Latin America’s leading soccer competition, CONMEBOL Libertadores.
Through an agreement with CONMEBOL, the governing body for soccer in South America, Crypto.com will serve as an official partner of CONMEBOL Libertadores from 2023 to 2026 and as a licensee of the competition’s official non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as of 2022, the company said in a statement Thursday, without disclosing further terms.
This deal will make Crypto.com the latest participant in Latin American soccer’s NFT trend, which includes stars such as Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Brazil’s Pelé. In July, CONMEBOL teamed up with Ethernity Chain to mine the 47th Copa America trophy — a continental soccer tournament — as an NFT.
As part of the agreement with CONMEBOL, Crypto.com will be the first brand to be integrated into the Virtual Assistant Referee (VAR) system through which referees review plays, the company added.
“Additionally, Crypto.com will benefit from brand exposure in stadiums, activations and broadcasts of the Conmebol Libertadores, as well as digital assets”, the crypto exchange said, adding that both parties will create NFTs associated with the CONMEBOL Libertadores competition on the NFT platform of Crypto.com.
“Our research shows Latin America is leading the way in embracing cryptocurrency, with 40% of Latin Americans saying they are interested in buying crypto in the near future. Naturally we were eager to support the continent’s most important football competition,” Kris Marszalek, co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com, said in a statement.
In November, Crypto.com acquired the naming rights to the iconic Staples Center, home to the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association, in a 20-year deal.
Read more: LA’s Iconic Staples Center to Be Renamed Crypto.com Arena
