British organization Guild Esports have secured a three-year sponsorship from cryptocurrency exchange platform Bitstamp, worth a total value of $6.1m.
The convergence of esports and cryptocurrency has grown strong throughout the last year, with most major Western esports orgs getting into crypto in one form or another.
Guild Esports, an organization co-owned by former footballer David Beckham, are the latest to capitalize on the trend through a three-year sponsorship deal with Bitstamp.
Signing as the org’s official cryptocurrency exchange partner, the platform will pay them $6.1m (£4.5m GBP) over the term of the deal. This is the biggest sponsorship to date for Guild, providing them with roughly $2m (£1.5m) each of the three years.
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— Bitstamp (@Bitstamp) January 13, 2022
Bitstamp’s $6.1m will net them marketing rights and a jersey placement, as well as prominent features across social and digital content including Guild’s competitors and content creators.
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This deal will no doubt be a relief for Guild’s leadership team after they ended a £3.6m sponsorship in October 2021 due to “uncertainty about the contract.”
They originally announced the deal with the unknown fintech company back in October 2020 but, a year on, the sponsor never launched and thus never began paying out what they had agreed.
“We are thrilled to welcome Bitstamp to Guild as our official Cryptocurrency Exchange partner,” said Guild CEO Kal Hourd. “It will also enable us to deliver creative, high-quality content and meaningful experience to our audience in a way that is authentic to both Guild and Bitstamps’ identities.
“Our pipeline of new business opportunities remains strong as Guild’s growing network audience of fans and teams’ performance continues to attract strong interest from a wide cross-section of brand advertisers. As a result we look forward to bringing more sponsors on board in due course.”