Polkadot and a number of other sponsors have approached Barcelona about partnering with them before their contracts with Rakuten and Beko end in six months.
Despite the Nou Camp’s financial difficulties, the LaLiga club continues to attract commercial interest. A potentially profitable proposal could even be enough to alleviate the club’s off-field problems significantly.
Barcelona is still seeking for firms to front their shirts as well as have their emblem on their sleeves and training outfits; thus, the total value of the sponsorships could exceed $90.1 million.
Polkadot, a blockchain network created in 2016 that gained traction last year, is one of those competing for sponsorship. According to a recent press release, FC Barcelona describes the protocol as a platform that supports a “large number of transactions per second,” or 1,000 TPS. It is expected to reach 1,000,000 once fully operational.
Another possible partner for Barça is Spotify, a digital music streaming service. According to the Spanish team’s long-term strategy, it will thoroughly research the options before deciding on a sponsor:
“The club has decided to take things with patience to analyze in-depth each proposal in procures to reach the most profitable agreement on a long-term basis.”
With Alves and Pedri at the club, some of the biggest Spanish football names could soon promote Polkadot at games throughout the world.
FC Barcelona is not a novice to the market for digital assets. A few months ago, the team announced a global collaboration with the NFT marketplace Ownix to develop a non-fungible collection for its fans. However, the club canceled the agreement shortly after when Moshe Hogeg (a relative of Ownix) was arrested for a multitude of charges, including fraud and sexual assault.
Binance had previously been rumored as a potential FC Barcelona sponsor, but the cryptocurrency exchange was not included in the formal announcement. Polkadot was the only one who made the cut.
Polkadot’s offer, as fees climb, can only be regarded as a calculated move – with the network seeking to attract new retail investors as DOT attempts to restore its spot among the top ten cryptocurrencies (by market cap).
It is, however, an attempt to replicate the prowess and success of huge corporations like crypto.com, Binance, and FTX, which have dominated the industry’s sports sponsorship promotion.
Because of its new parachain method, blockchain technology has received a lot of interest. Simply put, this feature enables multiple blockchains to communicate with one another. It also enables users to build a blockchain with their Substrate framework and connects Polkadot’s network to other projects such as Ethereum and Bitcoin.
In November of last year, the protocol’s development team staged its inaugural Parachain slot Auction. Earlier this month, Moonbeam, a smart contract platform, became the first fully running parachain on Polkadot. It plans to add a number of new connectors, activities, and users to help enhance the Polkadot ecosystem and build the network.
