Australian football league secures $25M deal with Crypto.com

Aside from being the first major crypto sports sponsorship in Australia, the deal will also be a first for women’s sports.

In what comes as the first major crypto sports sponsorship deal down under, the Australia Football League (AFL) has secured a partnership with Crypto.com to back its women’s league (AFLW).

The deal is worth close to $25 million over the next five years, a marked increase from the AFL’s existing $18.5 million sponsorship contract with Toyota. Crypto.com is a Singapore-based crypto exchange offering digital wallets and crypto-backed debit cards.

The partnership will mark Crypto.com’s first time sponsoring an Australian sports team. It will also be its first time sponsoring an elite women’s sports competition worldwide, a milestone that AFL Executive General Manager Customer and Commercial Kylie Rogers said she’s “proud” to be part of.

“The AFL is proud to be the first Australian sports league and elite women’s competition globally to work alongside an organization that shares our passion to progress the future of elite sport and technology.”

Crypto.com general manager Asia & Pacific Karl Mohan says that the company was attracted by Australia’s relatively high number of women interested in crypto.

“Our latest consumer research in Australia found that more than half (53%) of crypto investors were females,” he said.

“It is very encouraging to see that Australians from all walks of life, irrespective of gender or background, are very keen to adopt cryptocurrencies, and we’re excited about being their go-to platform.”

Back in August, CNBC released a survey that found that women are still less than half as likely to invest in cryptocurrencies than men, with 16% of men investing vs 7% of women.

Crypto.com has amassed a number of sports branding deals over the past months, totaling over $1.5 billion. In mid-Nov, the crypto company secured a $700 million deal to rename the Staples Center in Los Angeles to the Crypto.com Arena for the next 20 years.

It also signed a $100-million sponsorship agreement with Formula 1 in late June and a $175 million sponsorship agreement with the UFC in July.