- Crypto.com backed out of a Champions League sponsorship deal with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) valued at around $495 million over five seasons, according to an exclusive from Sports Business.
- Regulatory concerns in Europe prompted the firm to back out from the deal.
- Last August 31, Sports Business reported Crypto.com pulled out of an almost half-million-dollar agreement with the UEFA, just before it was set to be finalized, citing legal issues with the exchanges licenses in the UK, France and Italy.
- The UEFA Champions League would have featured Crypto.com’s branding for five seasons, beginning in 2027, at a cost of about $100 million per season.
Crypto.com had stepped in as a potential replacement as the Champions League dropped the Russian-state-owned energy company Gazprom as a sponsor. In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, UEFA, Europe’s governing body for soccer canceled Gazprom’s contract in March. In an effort to avoid supporting Russia’s economy during the war, many regions of Europe announced plans to become independent from the nation’s supply of gas and oil.
In 2021, the Singapore-based exchange signed a 20-year, $700 million agreement to rename Los Angeles Staples Center the Crypto.com Arena and collaborate with Formula 1 for its Sprint series in 2021. Earlier, the exchange had agreed to sponsor the Aston Martin squad in the racing competition. The exchange launched a $25 million five-year sponsorship agreement with the Australian Football League in 2022, becoming one of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar’s official sponsors.
As Crypto.com is in the midst of layoffs in response to the current crypto winter, negotiations with sports sponsors appear to have slowed down. The exchange, however, intends to continue its international growth as they just reported receiving regulatory authorization to operate in Singapore and South Korea.
Crypto experts and industry insiders, however, have hailed Crypto.com’s decision to back out of the agreement with UEFA as a wise one due to the constantly shifting regulatory guidelines in various countries regarding cryptocurrency laws, in addition to the current crypto winter the market is experiencing.
Neither UEFA nor Crypto.com have spoken out about the situation as of yet.
Source | Editor’s Note: This article by The Mega Maxi is not a financial advise.
