By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 22nd, 2024
The FTX Derivatives exchange deal with the Golden State Warriors trails similar deals being pursued by other digital currency trading platforms including Coinbase Global and Crypto.com amongst others.
FTX Derivatives Exchange, one of the most iconic trading platforms in operations today has inked a multi-year global rights deal with the NBA side, the Golden State Warriors. As reported by CNBC, this deal is worth about $10 million according to people familiar with the deal who pleaded anonymity as the matter remains private.
With the Golden State Warriors agreeing to the international rights deal with FTX, the trading firm will now be able to expand its brand awareness to a more targeted audience. Per the report, the exchange gets brand placement with the Warriors’ G League club and the NBA 2K esports team, in-arena signage at Chase Center.
Additionally, FTX will also get virtual floor inventory on Warriors regional sports network games with the company’s ads showing on the sports side’s regional and national games. FTX has notably secured exclusive rights to the team’s Non-Fungible Token (NFT) collections.
“FTX is a company that caught our eyes a couple of months ago,” Warrior president and chief operating officer Brandon Schneider said in an interview with CNBC. “We think we’re at the beginning of the beginning. We’re all learning, and this space will evolve quite a bit,” Schneider added.
FTX has been at the forefront of pushing sports deals, especially amongst American outfits. Back in August, Coinspeaker reported that FTX.US secured a 10-year naming rights deal with Cal Memorial Stadium which serves as the home to Cal Athletics (California Golden Bears). The deal was reportedly worth $17.5 million. The firm is also known to ink personal partnerships with athletes, including Steph Curry as it looks to broaden its stance as a leader in the fast-growing world of digital currencies.
“We think they’re a market leader headed in the right direction,” Schneider said of FTX.
FTX Derivatives Deal: A Compliment to Growing Crypto Bubble?
The FTX Derivatives exchange deal with the Golden State Warriors trails similar deals being pursued by other digital currency trading platforms including Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ: COIN) and Crypto.com amongst others.
This growing need to partner with sports teams has been likened to a similar trend during the Dot Com bubble where high-performing startups went on the offensive and were inking partnerships with sports teams in the US. Most of the companies at the early stages of the internet revolution folded up, lending a source of concern for the crypto firms making similar moves today.
“I see similarities of the behavior on the front end of a bubble,” said Peter Laatz, global managing director at sponsorship valuation firm IEG. “The behaviors of the rush-to-spend and the influx of cash coming in with naming rights at a league-wide level with still some consumer confusion about what the product is – it’s very similar to the dot-com bubble.”
Many may say the comparisons are undue as the blockchain firms have stood the test of time, however, the argument that the industry is largely underdeveloped still permeates the air and one can only watch how things unfold in the coming years.