Exchange of cryptocurrencies FTX has been extensively investing in sponsorships with major sports teams and events in order to establish its presence in the cryptocurrency sector.
Among its well-known partners are football legend Tom Brady, the NBA’s Miami Heat, Washington Wizards, and Golden State Warriors, the Mercedes F1 team, the Washington Capitals, and, most recently, the Super Bowl.
On Sunday, millions of Americans watching Super Bowl LVI will see advertising from the trading site FTX, which will be hosting a bitcoin giveaway.
FTX Surprises Regulators
The advertising, however, is meant to urge US authorities to relax their laws on the technology, rather than to get users to download the app, CEO Sam Bankman-Fried told the Washington Post in an interview.
“We want to ensure that we are portraying a positive picture of ourselves and the business. We’re confident that we’ll be able to expand our company in the United States — a significant portion of which will be spent collaborating with US authorities on bringing new goods to market,” Bankman-Fried added.
Licenses for bitcoin derivatives exchanges, which FTX operates in other countries, are presently prohibited in the United States. FTX US, the brand’s American subsidiary, is licenced only as a cryptocurrency exchange.
Cryptocurrency in Sports?
FTX is pursuing a sports relationship since their followers are also crypto fanatics, according to the company’s CEO, who is also a baseball lover.
Last October, the cryptocurrency brand announced that it will become the long-term cryptocurrency partner of major racing, basketball, and baseball clubs. FTX then developed relationships with college cage teams, including the men’s basketball team at the University of Kentucky.
FTX contacted individual athletes, including Tom Brady, Stephen Curry, and Red Sox great and recent Baseball Hall of Fame member David Ortiz.
“Sports enthusiasts are twice as likely to be familiar with cryptocurrency than non-sports fans. “Avid sports lovers are roughly three times more likely,” Bankman-Fried told Markets Insider.
The million-dollar crypto giveaway during the Super Bowl has a twist: the value of the reward is contingent on the duration the advertisement runs, as specified on the website. For example, if the advertisement plays at 10:00 p.m. EST, FTX will give out ten thousand bitcoins to winners.
Between the time the ad airs and 11:59 p.m. EST, participants must follow the account and retweet the pinned tweet.
Following that, four winners will be selected to receive their rewards, but they must first have their own FTX accounts.
The Super Bowl is typically the year’s highest-rated television show, accounting for 28 of the top 30 broadcasts in the history of American television.
Bankman-Fried chose football as part of a marketing strategy emphasising sports as the fastest-growing segment of the bitcoin industry.
The NFC champion Los Angeles Rams will face the AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl championship game.
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