The Premier League is to begin a probe into the cryptocurrency links with clubs after worrying details emerged surrounding the of lack of regulation in the industry and potential exploitation of fans.
Several fan groups from clubs in England’s topflight are concerned over the exposure that the rising phenomenon is receiving, with the fear that fans will purchase products with the digital currency, aiming for the value to rise over time, encouraging fans to take further financial risk.
With the value of currencies constantly fluctuating, distress is evident among the rising popularity of crypto sponsorship in football. Arsenal, Leeds and West Ham fans all stated that they feel too much exposure is being given to an unregulated market that not enough people are educated on.
Despite only Southampton and Watford ‘boasting’ shirt and sleeve sponsorships from crypto companies, over half of the teams in the league have signed a partnership, with clubs such as Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United not involved.
A new emerging crypto-asset for football clubs is the use of Socios, a platform where fans invest, trade and spend in exchange for their own ‘fan tokens’, where holders can influence decisions such as matchday music, with the popularity of the feature expected to rise within the next few years.
Premier League Chief Richard Masters stated at a recent meeting that ‘they are committed to investigating the issue and will speak to the Premier League’s chief commercial officer to look into the issue in more detail.’
Football’s relationship to cryptocurrency was recently thrown into the limelight after Manchester City’s partnership with company 3Key was abandoned due to the directors and owners having no digital footprint or contact details, reinforcing the agitation that fan groups feel about the lack of regulation in the sector.
With sponsorship across the 92 being a topic of hot discussion, most notably after the UK Government’s promise to remove all betting sponsors from shirts, this will indefinitely lead to more crypto-related names on jersey’s within years to come.
