Crypto Corner: The Sports Slice

Dapper Labs is taking sports NFTs up a notch with a new NFL team partnership, a Premier League soccer club is back under the radar of advertising regulators, and renowned Dallas Mavs owner Mark Cuban has his share of crypto controversy this week.

Every weekend we review sports and cryptocross news from the past week with The sports disc. Let’s dive into the final week of cross-sport activity.

The sports disc

Arsenal Face Fantoken Advertising Warning … Again

It’s been about 8 months since we covered Premier League soccer club Arsenal’s battle with advertising regulators, who shut down the club’s fan token campaigns, citing the club’s actions as “exploiting consumers’ inexperience with cryptocurrencies.” Arsenal rebuked, stating that consumers were educated enough to make their own decisions about the token.

Fast forward to today and over the past week we have seen trouble again for the club, who were reprimanded from the UK’s Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) over NFT promotions. The club’s Arsenal Fan Token (AFC) is at the center of the conversation, following its launch last year via a partnership with sports fan token powerhouse Chiliz. As a result of the ASA’s conclusion, their first ruling stands and the club cannot advertise the token going forward.

Mavericks’ Mark Cuban faces heat regarding Voyager Digital, and shares his thoughts on Metaverse Land

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban doesn’t shy away from calling it like he sees it, and that certainly applies to crypto. It could be a double-edged sword, however, as the Cuban is facing a class-action lawsuit over his comments surrounding Voyager Digital, the soon-to-be-bankrupt crypto platform that had a partnership with Cuban Dallas Mavericks. Voyager CEO Steve Erhlich is also mentioned, as the lawsuit states that “Cuban’s enthusiasm for the Voyager/Mavericks partnership was shared by Voyager CEO and co-founder Steve Erhlich, who said the company ‘couldn’t be more excited’ about partnering with the Mavs. “

Meanwhile, Cuban shared a sentiment last week about metaverse lands — a category of NFTs that have been hit particularly hard in recent months — that can be simplified by his statement that buying these NFTs is “the dumbest s**t *one ever.” The sentiment runs counter to the actions of Bored Ape Yacht Club ownership, Yuga Labs, in which Cuban has a stake. Cuban addressed it directly, saying he “still thought investing in real estate was a stupid thing.” He added, “it’s big money for them, you know, but it wasn’t based on a tool.”

League One club Barnsley look set to close crypto deal

It’s not just Arsenal with crypto problems this past week, as third division Barnsley aim to end their shirt sponsorship deal with HEX.com following a fan backlash. The club released a statement expressing its intention to remove the shirt sponsor, just a week after the deal was established, following a backlash from fans from homophobic comments that emerged from permanent representatives.

HEX.com (HEX) has it's jersey sponsorship deal with Barnsley in question this past week following reports of controversial tweets from platform representatives. | Source: HEX-USDT on TradingView.com

Dapper Labs teams up with the LA Rams

Dapper Labs has become a focal point in sports NFTs, creating powerful marketplaces such as the NBA and WNBA official NFT marketplace, Top Shot, and the NFL marketplace, NFL All Day. The NFL is certainly a growth market for Dapper, and the company is taking aim, partnering last week with the reigning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams for a season-long partnership this year.

This partnership debuted quickly with a limited edition commemorative Super Bowl LVI rings last week on the All Day platform. Just over 6,000 rings quickly sold out on the platform, ranging in price from $9 to $699. LA Rams CCO Jen Prince commented on the engagement:

“This best-in-class partnership is a great case study for how game-changing technology will allow us to reach our fans and engage new fans both here in California and around the world.”

USC Athletics secures an official crypto platform

No stranger to collegiate sports The sports disc, but involvement from NFT and athletes tends to be at the forefront. That’s not the case this week, as USC Athletics announced a new deal with iTrustCapital, securing the firm as the athletic department’s official crypto platform. The agreement will provide iTrustCapital with standard branding resources throughout the university’s athletic engagements, and will feature iTrustCapital through “special fan-centric events and promotional activities both before and after many events throughout the football and basketball seasons,” according to the university’s press release.

Featured image from Pexels, Charts from TradingView.com

The writer of this content is not associated or affiliated with any of the parties mentioned in this article. This is not financial advice.