It's partnership season - Weekly Web3 Recap 07/09/2024
Thanks to all of you 453 readers who are exploring the intersection of Web3 with sports and business. I appreciate every single one of you. If you are not yet a subscriber, feel free to subscribe right away - thank you 🙏
Servus, it's Lorenz here 👋
In today's episode we will take a look at Bitpanda's partnership with the NFL and what the crypto company has been up to in the world of sports. Beyond that we'll have a look at three more partnerships between RB Leipzig & Kraken, Borussia Dortmund & BlockDAG and NFL Rivals & The Kansas City Chiefs. We'll round of the episode with Samsung investing in the maker of Sony's blockchain and an interesting read on consumer crypto.
Let's dive into this 🐬
🏈 Bitpanda x NFL
The Austrian fintech and crypto company has done another deal in sports sponsoring. They are now an Official Partner of the NFL. Just before the kick-off this partnership has been announced. It will involve digital activation rights throughout the season and Bitpanda will also be present for the NFL game in Munich. Link
Bitpanda's sponsoring journey
The company was founded back in 2014. And although it's quite "old", at least for the crypto industry, it hasn't really been focussing on any strategic marketing approach until the recent past.
Of course they did have a range of social media accounts, where they also communicated the start of their offering in December 2014: "We’re here. Buy Bitcoin from us.". But beyond that there was very little for quite a while. Then in 2021 it slowly started.
It seems as they tried to get into more markets, they did more campaigns and activations among those out-of-home campaigns and what we'll focus on, sports sponsoring. But according to the CEO himself and also the impression one had in the market, this wasn't as effective and present.
Sports-wise their first deal was inked in late 2021 and was with Davis Cup. In 2022 they expanded their portfolio and partnered with the Italian national rugby team and the World Padel Tour. Considering what other players from the industry were doing at the same time, their approach seemed almost frugal. And while the partners are great organizations from the world of sports, they weren't as big names as Manchester City, Miami Dolphins, a F1 team etc.
After those initial initiatives it got silent again. The crypto market went down, one of the biggest exchanges, FTX, collapsed dramatically, and therefore the whole industry really struggled, cut costs etc. The same was true for Bitpanda, that had to go through bigger layoffs. Fast forward to the market recovery and this year, 2024. This, we now know, is when their broader sports sponsorship strategy began.
An overview of their partnerships and sponsorships:
With the arrival of clear regulation for the European crypto industry, Bitpanda, that has always tried to be a trustworthy exchange and acted so in terms of regulatory and compliance requirements, is now betting on sports sponsoring.
In terms of markets they obviously focus on countries and regions in which they are already active. The main focus is on the most important market, the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), with FC Bayern, BOSS Open, Terra Wortman Open, Mallorca Championships, Generali Open and Dominic Thiem.
From a sports perspective tennis is currently dominating their sponsorship portfolio. Two players and four tournaments have been supported by Bitpanda. I'm not quite sure what the actual reason for that "focus". Obviously it's a popular sport but the tennis ecosystem has been quite innovative lately also in regards to the blockchain space. But they may also have chosen it because of the socio-economic target the sport of tennis provides or simply because the CEO likes to play tennis himself. (Listen to the German podcast with him here)
Recommended by LinkedIn
Overall, the quality of the sponsorship inventory of Bitpanda has evolved and they seem to have a better plan in mind to actually leverage the rights they've invested in. While we've not seen too much activations with all the inventory yet, it's a pity that Bitpanda hasn't and probably won't introduce a fan engagement scheme like OKX or Kraken did with Williams Racing and ManCity. But it's also understandable as Bitpanda positions itself more as a fintech and investment platform than a platform that acts as an entry-point to an "onchain world".
⚽️ RB Leipzig x Kraken
RasenBallsport Leipzig has signed a sponsorship deal with crypto exchange Kraken, making the company an Exclusive Partner of the club. Further details haven't been announced yet. What seems quite clear however is that this partnership is part of the launch of a fully localised offering of Kraken in Germany. Link
Quick take:
Kraken has been appeared in many editions of the newsletter this summer. They've been very active doing sponsorship deals in football. We've also already seen various activations like give aways and a shirt swapping truck at the stadium. What hasn't been done yet however are activations like with Williams Racing that involve some kind of onchain component (digital collectibles, a kind of digital membership pass etc.). Especially in the Bundesliga, where onchain offerings are currently a bit rarer, this partnership would be a great fit to kind of level up the whole ecosystem.
⚽️ Dortmund x BlockDAG
We continue with another Bundesliga club. After announcing the expansion of the partnership with Coinbase, the club has signed another sponsor with a blockchain background. BlockDAG, that just became Inter's Official Blockchain Partner, is also a Premium Partner of BVB. The deal involves logo appearances across the club's platforms, virtual LED advertising, content with players and VIP hospitality experiences. Link
🏈 NFL Rivals x Chiefs
NFL Rivals, a football game that leverages onchain items, is going into its second season as the NFL season kicks off. For this season the game has entered an official partnership with the current champion, the Kansas City Chiefs. NFL Rivals will be their official mobile game. In the course of the partnership fans will be able to participate in a giveaway by playing the game and earning points. Link
💰 Samsung invests in Sony's blockchain maker
A few weeks ago we talked about Sony's plans for an own blockchain. It will be a Layer 2 blockchain on top of Ethereum that will be built by a company called Startale Labs which has been funded by Sony. Last week another well-known name joined the cap table - Samsung NEXT, an investment subsidiary of Samsung. According to the press release, Samsung also intends to support the development company in setting up Soneium, Sony's blockchain. Link
🗞️ The Read of the Week
The narrative in Web3 is currently shifting towards consumer crypto. I'm a big fan of it because it shifts the focus from infrastructure towards apps and products that people actually use and interact with. It's kind of bringing meaning to the infrastructure and creating actual use cases for everybody.
One of the most popular people from Web3, Luca Netz the man behind Pudgy Penguins, has done a deep dive on what he thinks consumer crypto means, why it's important and more.
You can find the link for the article right here: Link