Good day everyone,

I hope you are all well and having a great day, welcome to CryptoGod-1's blog on all things sports. Today I will be doing a post on an new strategic partnership which will be combining both crypto and my favourite sport of football (soccer for you American's out there). The news has broken that Coinbase is to become the new sponsor of BVB, also known as Borussia Dortmund. The deal was signed last year, in July 2022, but it has only just been officially announced.

Borussia Dortmund

Based in Dortmund,  North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the team Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund, is a football club and professional sports club. They are famed for playing football in their yellow kits, and are nicknamed The Black and Yellows. The club was founded in 1909 by eighteen football players from Dortmund and has grown to become one of Germany's most iconic football clubs. Dortmund was ranked as the second richest sports club in Germany in 2021, and considered the 12th richest football team in the world. Since 1974, Dortmund have played their home games at Westfalenstadion Stadium (also known as Signal Iduna Park) which is the largest in Germany, and Dortmund also hold the highest average attendance of any football club in the world thanks to its capacity of 81,365.

Their success of trophies includes 5 Bundesliga trophies, 3 German Cups, 5 DFB-Pokal trophies, 6 DFL-Supercup trophies, 1 UEFA Champions League, 1 Cup Winners Cup, and 1 Intercontinental Cup. This makes them the second most successful club in German football behind only Bayern Munich.

German Champions: 11/12 ,  10/11 ,  01/02 ,  95/96 ,  94/95 ,  62/63 ,  56/57 ,  55/56

German Cup: 20/21 ,  16/17 ,  11/12 ,  88/89 ,  64/65

German Super Cup: 19/20 ,  14/15 ,  13/14 ,  96/97 ,  95/96 ,  89/90

Champions League: 96/97

Cup Winners Cup: 65/66

Intercontinental Cup: 97/98

While they have enjoyed immense success even against the might of Bayern Munich, the club also has a dark past which almost saw them go bankrupt.

Coinbase

Coinbase Global, Inc., branded Coinbase, is an American publicly traded company that operates a cryptocurrency exchange platform. It was founded in June 2012 by Brian Armstrong, a former Airbnb engineer. It works as a distributed company, with no physical headquarters as all employees operate remotely. It is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States by trading volume and Coinbase has expanded its presence as it looks to become a more prominent figure in the global cryptocurrency space. Europe is an attractive market it is looking to conquer and having received authorization from Germany's BaFin in 2021 for providing cryptocurrency custody services, it has also received regulatory approval in the Netherlands and Italy.

In 2022 they got viral status for a Superbowl advertisement which was a QR code on a blank screen. The advertisement ran for 60 seconds and directed users to a web page for Coinbase advertising a $15 in free Bitcoin for new sign ups. The influx of users caused Coinbase's website to crash as Coinbase's homepage received 20 million hits in one minute. The advertisement was considered to be the most effective of any commercial during the game, and you can see it in the YouTube video below.

Terms of the Sponsorship

The deal was finalised in the summer of 2022 and becomes the first foray into the football field for the cryptocurrency exchange. Coinbase's aim to expand its presence outside of the United States is one of the main reasons behind this deal, although it is not the first sports deal for the exchange who closed a major multi-year deal to become the exclusive cryptocurrency platform partner of the NBA in the US.

The partnership will see the deal between the club and the exchange enhanced even further, as Coinbase has previously had advertisements displayed on video screens during the club's home games. These will now expand to advertisements of the crypto exchange on the stadium while also seeing the brand of Coinbase on all the other marketing channels of the club. This means the logo of the crypto exchange will be a feature on the perimeter of the club's home ground, Signal Iduna Park. Dortmund currently have an extensive social media presence, with more than 15 million people liking its Facebook page and 17.3 million followers on Instagram.

Interestingly, it is only a short term partnership, with the deal running until June of this year and ending then. There is of course potential for an extension, but it is clearly just a deal to boost the cryptocurrency exchange until the end of the season, while also ensuring BVB will get a nice financial return from it,

Dortmund revealed they were cautious in entering the deal with a cryptocurrency company, stating:

"As a listed association, we have imposed special requirements. Coinbase's Bafin license was a basic requirement for cooperation, We did not get on the most tempting offer. For us, reliability was in the foreground."

One would image that this means there will be potential for further sponsorship down the line assuming no issues arise during the existing deal. Either way, having promotions on the club's physical and digital infrastructure is certain to garner attention of the hundreds of millions of football fans who attend the matches or watch them on television or streaming services.

Cryptocurrency exchanges have maybe not got the same prominent attention in Europe as their counterparts in the United States, and therefore this deal is likely to be a good one for Coinbase and Crypto at large. Football has an unrivalled following in Europe and Dortmund are certainly one of the biggest clubs in Germany and well known to fans across Europa and the globe. Potentially this will open up more sponsorship from Cryptocurrency in the sporting field within Europe, assuming there are no issues down the line with this deal. Interesting times ahead.

Have a great day.

Peace. CryptoGod-1.

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