The Philadelphia 76ers Name Crypto.com as Next Jersey Patch Sponsor

The Philadelphia 76ers announced Crypto.com will be the team's new jersey patch sponsor this season in the latest blockbuster partnership between a cryptocurrency exchange and a major sports team. As part of the "eight-figure" deal, Crypto.com's logo will replace StubHub's on the team's uniform and the company will help facilitate non-fungible token (NFT) sales around the team's new City Edition uniform this November. Crypto.com will also receive other prominent ad placements across the team's arena, television broadcasts and digital channels. Reps for the 76ers and Crypto.com declined to reveal the exact financial terms of the deal or how many seasons it would last. A person close to the team said the deal was among the top five highest-priced patch sponsorships in the league, which can range in annual price from $5 million to $20 million. The deal marks the latest in a $400 million sports marketing spending spree for Crypto.com, which has previously inked agreements with Formula One, the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Paris Saint-Germain football club. Meanwhile, crypto exchange FTX recently secured naming rights for the Miami Heat's arena and University of California Berkeley's Memorial Stadium. Crypto.com CMO Steve Kalifowitz said the goal of this strategy is not just to make the exchange's own brand a household name but to spur interest in cryptocurrency across the board and invite people to learn more about the technology. "The strategy is fundamentally to bring our brand to as many people as possible in cultural moments where we can create a conversation," Kalifowitz said. "Because crypto is very new as an industry, there's a lot to [misunderstand] about the industry. And there's just so many people out there who genuinely want to learn more." Because the 76ers were the first NBA team to announce a jersey patch in 2016, they were among the few teams with a multiyear deal already up for grabs again this year, Kalifowitz said. The team's front office has also prided itself in its commitment to tech innovation over the last several years; the organization launched the Sixers Innovation Lab startup incubator in 2016 and became the first professional sports team to create an esports arm the same year. Both of those factors made the Sixers a natural choice when Crypto.com was looking for a way to make a splash in the NBA. The company is hoping the deal will transcend a run-of-the-mill sports sponsorship as it works with the team to create content and implement crypto tech on an ongoing basis. "They're genuinely partnerships," Kalifowitz said. "Everyone we're working with, we come up with really interesting integrations at the outset, with a strong roadmap of content that we're going to develop together." The 76ers had already begun to experiment with cryptocurrency long before the current deal with Crypto.com. The team partnered with blockchain platform Socios in June on a new crypto fan token and has participated in the league's NFT collectible marketplace, NBA Top Shot, since its inception last October. Sixers president of business operations Chris Heck said NFT sales could be one of the most promising areas to explore through the new partnership. Heck said he's bullish about cryptocurrency catching on among mainstream America as well. "This is a new frontier for sports teams," Heck told Adweek. "I think that it's going to be extremely positive—and it already has been—and it's also going to be very much commonplace in the next few years." NFL Data Finds Audiences Where Commercials Can’t