by Lydia Ludmila 
American mixed martial arts promotion company Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has signed a fight kit deal with cryptocurrency platform Crypto.com. A report unveiled this news on July 7, noting that this agreement will see Crypto.com get a brand presence on fight kit items used in UFC matches. This includes apparel worn by the athletes during fights and clothing worn by the training staff.
According to the report, this deal will also make Crypto.com the owner of UFC’s newly launched sponsorship program dubbed Cryptocurrency Platform Partner. While the companies did not make the terms of the agreement public, people familiar with the matter said it is worth $175.00 million (£127.00 million) and will span 10 years.
Commenting on this partnership, Crypto.com’s co-founder and CEO, Kris Marszalek, said the deal is a historic moment that will help the mixed martial arts space expedited the world’s transition to crypto. He added that this agreement is just the beginning of a long partnership between the two companies and that he is looking forwards to what they will build together.
Partnerships between the crypto and sports industries are on the rise
This news comes a few days after Crypto.com entered into a $100 million deal (£72.50 million) deal with Formula 1. Similar to the agreement with UFC, this deal saw Crypto.com secure a brand presence in F1 events, including the new Sprint qualifying format, which will be used in some races to determine the starting positions of the cars. On top of this, Crypto.com will get trackside slots at F1 racers for the remainder of this season.
However, Crypto.com is not the only crypto company looking to expand its user base through sponsorship deals with the sports world. In the past week, Dutch professional football club Az Alkmaar entered into a deal with Bitcoin Meester, a crypto trading platform in the Netherlands. While the financial details of this agreement remain unknown, Az Alkmaar disclosed that it would accept some of the sponsorship funds in Bitcoin (BTC/USD).
Moving on to the basketball space, the Portland Trail Blazers partnered with StormX in a deal that will offer the crypto platform brand presence in the team’s games. This agreement will also see StormX create the team’s first NFT. Before this, FTX signed a deal with the Miami HEAT to rebrand the team’s home stadium to FTX Arena. Reportedly, this agreement saw FTX offer the team a $135 million (£97.91 million) sponsorship.
