AFL clinches $25m crypto.com sponsorship deal, first for women’s sport
Attracted by what it says is higher than average usage of cryptocurrency by Australian women, Crypto.com’s AFLW deal is its first for a women’s sporting competition.
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The AFL has clinched the first major cryptocurrency sports sponsorship in Australia as part of a groundbreaking deal with Crypto.com that will see the global company emerge as a major backer of the AFLW contest.
Attracted by what it says is higher than average usage of cryptocurrency by Australian women by global standards, Crypto.com’s AFLW deal is the first it has struck for a women’s sporting competition around the world.
The Singapore-based company has a cryptocurrency exchange and also offers digital wallets and crypto-backed debit cards. It has splashed out more than $1.5bn for a series of sports branding deals in recent months, including a $US700m ($971m) naming rights agreement for a Los Angeles stadium and partnerships ranging from soccer club Paris St Germain to the UFC martial arts championship and Formula One.
The AFL deal is one of the biggest sponsorships in Australian sport.
The Crypto.com agreement with the AFL is estimated to be worth close to $25m over five years. This compares to the $18.5m value of the AFL’s existing major sponsorship with Toyota and the Australian Open’s major partner Kia, which is worth $85m over five years.
The new partnership will see Crypto.com become the official cryptocurrency exchange and official cryptocurrency trading platform of AFL and AFLW, which currently have their 2022 seasons under way.
Crypto.com general manager Asia & Pacific Karl Mohan, said research conducted by the company in Australia found 53 per cent of crypto investors were females, which had encouraged it to take up the AFLW element of the overall deal.
“Uniquely for Australia, compared to other markets, is that they generally skew towards blokes, but here we are skewing more towards women,” Mr Mohan told The Australian.
“It is very encouraging to see that Australians from all walks of life, irrespective of gender or background, are very keen to adopt cryptocurrencies and we think the AFL has led the way to bring gender diversity to Australian sport.”
He said Crypto.com had been attracted to sports sponsorship deals as a way of promoting its brand, as cryptocurrency in general “reaches a level of maturity in the market globally, so we are seeing it increasingly become mainstream”.
“Australia is an important market,” he said.
“It is a tech-savvy population, it loves adopting technology early and the regulation is becoming very clear in Australia.”
Senator Andrew Bragg’s Senate fintech committee last year handed down a report recommending an overhaul of tax rules to be more accommodating of cryptocurrencies.
Crypto.com will appear in advertising during score reviews in AFL regular season and finals matches, when contentious goal line decisions are reviewed on video by off-field umpires.
The AFL’s general manager for customer and commercial, Kylie Rogers, said the sport had identified cryptocurrency and blockchain as a potential new sponsorship source last year, and clinched the Crypto.com agreement after several months of negotiations.
“The growth of blockchain technology, services and cryptocurrency products available provide a range of exciting opportunities and we look forward to partnering with Crypto.com to drive innovation throughout the sports industry,” she said.
“The new partnership marks one of the most significant corporate partner deals since the Covid-19 pandemic, which will help strengthen our industry as we continue to recover and rebuild key growth areas of our game.”
Ms Rogers said the AFL now had 47 commercial partners, up from 43 in 2019, and 22 central sponsors of AFLW.
“The last two years have been terribly challenging, but our partners have stood shoulder to shoulder with us. There’s more and more interest from corporates that want to have authentic partnerships with us and help our players as well.”
The AFL last year launched careers and networking platform workplay, designed to connect female athletes to a range of flexible employment, education and career development opportunities with sponsors and corporate leaders. More recently it has launched a new online business marketplace called AFLConnect, designed to connect AFL and club members and supporters with businesses and corporate partners.
The AFL’s annual commercial revenue, including sponsorship deals and corporate hospitality and ticket sales, reached $290m in 2019, its last full year not hit by Covid-19. That figure dropped to $194m in 2020, according to the competition’s most recently published annual report.
Originally published as AFL clinches $25m crypto.com sponsorship deal, first for women’s sport
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