Sports betting and gambling is nothing new. In fact, it has been around for thousands of years. Historians and archaeologists have discovered records of people who would place on ancient events such as chariot racing and gladiatorial fights. It appears to be ingrained in us as humans that there are possibilities to enhance the enjoyment of an event by potentially risking large sums of money on the outcome, as the chance to win big makes the risk completely worth it.

Nowadays, there are even more ways to bet than ever before. What once would have meant you had to travel in-person to a bookmaker in person, you can now do from the comfort of your own home. Each week, during a Sunday afternoon/evening when the majority of the NFL takes place, thousands, if not millions of people, will take their phones out and search for best bets NFL on their sports betting apps. Most will only bet sensibly, but many people risk huge amounts on each game.

Traditionally, the currency you used to bet was your local one, so the dollar, the pound sterling, the euro etc. However, over the past few years, certain sports betting apps have begun to allow people to use their cryptocurrency to place bets too. We won’t go into a lengthy explainer of what crypto is here, but it is a new way of storing currency away from the traditional centralised banks, which all operate under government advisement.

The world of crypto really has exploded in the past five years, thanks to big-name proponents of it, such as Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, the electric car company. We now see advertising for crypto on television, in magazines, and even at sports games. Many major US sports teams, such as the Philadelphia 76ers and the Houston Rockets have aligned themselves with certain crypto trading platforms or websites, such as crypto.com. Will we see this same sort of influence appearing in the NFL as well? 

NFL itself is resistant to the idea

Change is scary to people, especially to people who stand to lose the most. For years, the owners of the NFL franchises have been making money selling sponsorship and striking deals with traditional companies. The NFL as a whole wants to do everything in their power to keep the owners happy, so that they continue to invest in the team, to keep the sport entertaining around the world.

However, the rise of crypto has potentially scared the NFL, as they don’t want teams to be directly agreeing deals with cryptocurrency trading firms. This announcement was made just before the beginning of the 2021/22 season, with the statement reading “Clubs are prohibited from selling... advertisements for specific cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings, or other cryptocurrency sales.” This measure appears to be in place while the league sorts out its own strategy in the market.

To be fair, this move shouldn’t come as a surprise. The NFL is notoriously cautious and slow when it comes to agreeing on new forms of commercial agreements. It took its time allowing deals with alcohol and gambling firms, before slowly letting them in. They aren’t ruling out deals with crypto entirely, as they will accept teams making deals with asset managers who sell funds to track digital currency markets, but for now that is as far as they’ll go.

Despite this stance, crypto firms still finding their way into the NFL

Of course, smart companies are savvy enough to find ways around these rules and are still buying advertising space during games to promote their crypto firms. In the last month, we have seen FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange platform based in Bermuda, buy up $20 million worth of prime advertising slots, for a spot that was shown on Sunday Night Football for three consecutive weeks.

The advert stars Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, and his supermodel wife Gisele Bündchen. Considered as the most famous couple in the NFL, they are also high profile backers of FTX. So we expect to see more adverts for the platform containing these two megastars in the upcoming weeks.

FTX are not the only crypto company advertising during NFL games, as crypto.com are also getting in on the act. Not only have they bought ad space for some of the biggest upcoming NFL games, but they are also sponsoring the Fox network’s Saturday afternoon college football show. We imagine this is seen as an entry point to the world of football, and slowly but surely companies like crypto.com and FTX will buy up more and more ad space.

Seth Winter, the executive VP of Fox Sports tends to agree. He was recently quoted as saying that after sports betting, crypto was one of the categories bringing new money into the sports marketplace. So it certainly seems that crypto advertising and investors are only going to become more visible in years to come.