SPORTS contracts are diversifying their payment methods.
Professional athletes young and old are demanding to be paid in cryptocurrencies or signing money management deals with crypto-bankers.
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In 2021, the famed Staples Center, home of the Los Angeles Lakers, was rebranded as the Crypto.com Area.
Crypto ads flooded the Super Bowl commercial market – in fact, Coinbase’s site crashed after their 60-second ad featuring a QR code that directed viewers to their signup page.
But it’s not just the advertising arm of sports riding the crypto wave.
Players are requesting teams pay all or part of their salaries in digital dollars.
Russell Okung, an NFL veteran who won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks, broke ground as the first professional athlete to be paid half his salary in Bitcoin.
Okung struck his deal when Bitcoin was hanging around $30,000 – when the price breached $56,000, the Bitcoin side of his contract was worth more than the whole of his eight-figure contract.
NBCSports quoted Okung saying “Getting paid in Bitcoin is the first step of opting out of the corrupt, manipulated economy we all inhabit.”
But like any investment asset, Bitcoin is subject to volatility.
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NFL superstar Odell Beckham Jr signed a midseason deal with the Los Angeles Rams worth $750,000 disbursed entirely in Bitcoin – the deal was inked when Bitcoin was at its apex, over $60,000 a coin.
Over the course of that season, the price sagged to $35,000 a coin, slicing the value of Beckham Jr’s contract almost in half before California taxes took their sizable share.
Last season, Beckham Jr was a hired gun playing on a short term deal that ended in a Super Bowl victory.
Despite the contract failure, Beckham Jr remains one of the athletic faces of crypto, and will speak at a Bitcoin conference alongside Aaron Rodgers this week.
Meanwhile, less established young players are signing crypto deals just as their careers kick off.
Trevor Lawrence, last year’s number one overall pick in the NFL draft, had his $22million dollar signing bonus deposited into a crypto portfolio.
Cade Cunningham, an NBA rookie also drafted number one overall, signed on for a partnership with the crypto-magnate BlockFi.
Investments in cryptocurrencies make gains “unrealized” – meaning the surplus value of Okung’s contract wouldn’t hit his bank account unless he actually sold his coins.
By the same token, Beckham Jr’s losses could be made up with a price spike if he continues to hold his crypto assets.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
