• Nearly half of clubs in the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 hold crypto partnerships
• Clubs in these leagues have secured over $182 million in 2022
• Volume of new deals for European soccer clubs has grown over 200% in the last 2 years

Cryptocurrency partnerships took off across the sports industry in 2021, with the growing popularity of the industry sector leading to greater engagement with sports right holders. This is most apparent within European soccer, with many of the biggest clubs in Europe selling their shirt fronts and naming rights to crypto firms says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Cryptocurrency has well and truly gained a foothold in the European soccer market. GlobalData’s Cryptocurrency Sector Sport Sponsorship 2022 Landscape – Analysing Top Sponsor Brands and Sponsorship Sector found that while only 25 deals were signed between crypto firms and European soccer clubs in 2020, 79 were penned in 2021, an increase of over 200%. Cryptocurrency sponsorship from the likes of Sorare, Socios and eToro is worth over $182 million, with major clubs such as Inter Milan, PSG, Manchester City and Barcelona all lending sponsorship rights to cryptocurrency brands.

Patrick Kinch, Sport Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Of the 20 Premier League clubs, 11 hold crypto partnerships. This compares to nine in Germany, eight in La Liga, plus an additional two in Ligue 1, while Italy’s Serie A has fully embraced the sector with 15 of its clubs holding such deals. This amounts to 46% of European clubs in the continent’s top five leagues in England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France, with some of those clubs holding multiple deals with crypto brands.”

Inter Milan are the biggest beneficiaries of the crypto boom this year, with $74 million in crypto partnerships secured with Socios.com and Digitalbits, for front of shirt and sleeve branding for the next two seasons.