Why Binance is ready to “tiptoe back” into sports - SportsPro

You only have to go back as far as July to find Cristiano Ronaldo’s most recent post advertising Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange he first partnered with in June 2022, to his 642 million Instagram followers.

Despite a US$1 billion lawsuit for his role promoting Binance-issued non-fungible tokens (NFT) the Portuguese soccer star’s relationship with the company is one of the partnerships that made it through the so-called crypto winter, which saw several other high-profile sports sponsorships collapse.

And now, after a turbulent period which has seen the crypto platform undergo a change of leadership and reach a US$4.3 billion settlement with the US government, one executive at Binance says we’re about to see the company do “a lot more” in sport.

“I think everybody learned a really good lesson,” Sarah Dale, the company’s global head of partnerships and entertainment, told me last month, reflecting on how the spectacular crypto market crash in late 2022 impacted sport. “We are still here, and we are stronger than ever, and we’re ready to go.”

According to Dale, the “hypothetical black cloud” that has been following the crypto industry since the FTX collapse has now parted, resulting in sports rights holders once again becoming receptive to doing business with brands from the sector.

Her observation is, of course, correct. There has been a noticeable uptick in crypto-related sponsorship activity this year and the SportQuake agency recently estimated that companies from the industry have spent almost UK£130 million on deals for the current Premier League season.

That said, and as I wrote in this newsletter barely two months ago, there are still several hurdles the crypto industry needs to overcome to win back the trust of sports properties who, as Dale admits, “got burned”.

She does, however, seem convinced that it will get there.

“Yeah I think so,” she says, when asked if we’ll ever see a return to the same level of crypto sponsorship activity from 2022. “But I think before, there was also this crypto tax. I think that’s part of the lesson learning too, and that’s also why we’re glad, because this isn’t the Wild West. Let’s be real, let’s have a sophisticated, educated, reasonable conversation.”

In other words, the same volume of deals, but perhaps less lucrative for sports rights holders.

“I think it’ll just be right sized, reasonable,” Dale adds. “But they’re not going to be able to ignore it. They’re not going to want to ignore it. I think they will take the time to educate themselves, to get comfortable and then to move forward. It’s not going anywhere.”

Dale’s optimism is fuelled by the pace of adoption, improved regulation, and institutional banks building out their crypto departments, all of which she believes is going to make the digital currency “more mainstream”.

That doesn’t mean Binance itself hasn’t had to have “hard conversations” with its partners to “re-instill that trust in the industry and in us”, says Dale, who points out that the company has wanted to “tiptoe back” into sport.

Moving forward, sport will therefore continue to be a focus for Binance, which, according to Dale, has brought in more than one million users over the last couple of years just through sports.

In addition to Ronaldo, Binance still has partnerships with European soccer clubs Lazio and FC Porto, as well as the Alpine Formula One team. Others have ended in more controversial circumstances, including its relationship with the Argentinian Football Association, which claimed its deal was terminated suddenly due to the crypto firm’s legal and financial problems.

Where the company looks next is partly determined by which markets it is able to operate in – its crypto exchange is not available in the UK or US, for example. But Dale says Binance is predominantly focused on partnerships in soccer and motorsport, although she also references cricket amid the platform’s launch in India.

“There are certain sports that actually index heavier in trading and fintech, in gaming, in investments,” she begins, “and so those sports, like F1, like football, those are good places for us to be aiming, because those fans are predisposed to listen, to be interested, to be engaged with what we are providing.”

Binance already sponsors the Alpine Formula One team but is still looking at motorsport for further partnerships

However, Binance’s own challenges over the last 18 months – Dale couldn’t comment on the impact of any of the lawsuits – are just one example of why some rights holders and consumers still have trust issues when it comes to crypto.

Dale, though, doesn’t seem to have much time for the naysayers right now.

“I think time will tell, and time will heal all wounds,” she says. “They (sceptics) may not be our target right now, and that might not be where we need to go. Our targets are people who are crypto curious. And if you are anti-crypto, you’re not crypto curious.

“There are so many people that are crypto curious right now. People who have never heard of crypto or have never heard of Web3, we’re not ready to take that on yet. But there are so many at that cusp that we are ready to talk to.”