European basketball team the London Lions has aligned itself with Bit Pay and formed a joint partnership with the crypto platform. The purpose? To allow fans to purchase both tickets and merchandise surrounding the team with crypto assets.
The London Lions Have Jumped Into Crypto
The move is pushing the goals of bitcoin and its digital counterparts closer to being achieved. What many people likely forget is that while bitcoin and many of its crypto cousins have taken on either speculative or even hedge-like statuses in recent years, many of them were initially designed to serve as payment tools. They were built to push checks, credit cards, and fiat currencies to the side, but this has been a relatively slow journey given the volatility that continues to drag them down.
It is extremely hard to understand when bitcoin and its crypto family will go up or down when it comes to their prices. Many stores and companies have been reluctant to say “yes” when it comes to accepting crypto payments for this reason, and to a degree, we can’t blame them.
Consider the following scenario: someone walks into a store and buys $50 worth of merchandise with bitcoin. For one reason or another, the store doesn’t trade the BTC into fiat right away and about 24 hours go by. From there, the price of BTC goes down and that $50 becomes $40. The customer gets to keep everything he or she bought, but the store has lost money in the end. Is this a fair situation? Not everyone thinks so.
That’s what makes enterprises like the London Lions so important. They understand the initial purposes of bitcoin and digital currencies and are trying to transform them into usable tools that everyday people can benefit from.
Merrick Theobald – vice president of marketing at Bit Pay – explained in a recent statement:
The London Lions realize the potential for crypto to transform the U.K. professional sports industry, making payments faster, more secure, and less expensive on a global scale. Our goal at Bit Pay is to make accepting crypto a seamless process and increase adoption, as we believe crypto is the future of payments.
Basketball Is Getting Bigger
Jonathan Lutzky – operating partner at 777 Partners – also threw his two cents into the mix, saying:
We stand strongly behind the belief that sport is a vehicle for social impact in society, with money management and future facing financial literacy being some of the most important pillars. We’re really excited to see this landmark relationship evolve, enabling fans to transact with the club in a new way whilst also increasing awareness around cryptocurrency.
Basketball is exploding in Europe, and the London Lions are proof of this. Two months ago, the team sold out the Copper Box Arena during a December Paris visit.
