You can use Bitcoin to buy pretty much anything these days, just check out our blog on how you can spend Bitcoin for proof. Plus, as you’ve seen at BitStarz, plenty of game providers now support Bitcoin, so you certainly aren’t short of ways to spend and gamble your hard earned BTC. However, the latest way to spend BTC isn’t exactly what we could consider to be within the norm. Showing that the world of sport is happy to dip its toe into the cryptocurrency market, a Turkish football club has now completed the transfer of player using Bitcoin.
Harunustaspor makes history
New firsts when it comes to Bitcoin have become a regular occurrence, with Brisbane recently becoming the world’s first cryptocurrency airport, but even we didn’t see this first coming. Harunustaspor – an amateur Turkish football team – has announced that it will part-pay for the club’s newest singing in Bitcoin. The club’s latest acquisition is 22-year-old Omar Faruk, who has been signed for around 0.07 BTC and $661 in cash. The transfer – even though small in scale – represents this first of its kind in the sport.
The tiny figures of this deal are nothing on the true scale of world football transfers, so it’s fairly obvious that the transfer represents more of a PR stunt than anything else. Speaking to CNN following the announcement, Harunustaspor chairman Haldun Sehit said, “We did it to make a name for ourselves in the country and the world, we are proud of this.”
Straight outta’ Dallas
The transfer of Omar Faruk to Harunustaspor isn’t likely to send shockwaves throughout the sporting world, but the move does come on the heels of other sport-related Bitcoin announcements. Just a few weeks ago Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban revealed that from next season match tickets would be purchasable in Bitcoin. This – technically speaking – is the first time that any NBA team has acknowledged Bitcoin, so it certainly makes it something noteworthy.
Breaching the Barclays Premier League
In the UK, Arsenal – a well-known Barclays Premier League football club – recently announced that it would be sponsored by mobile sports betting app CashBet, which has an ICO on the horizon. CashBet now describes itself as Arsenal’s “exclusive and official Blockchain Partner”, it’s a bit of a silly title, but it does show that the cryptocurrency market has now managed to breach one of the biggest football leagues in the world.
Bitcoin plays ball!
Bitcoin and sport are hardly two things that you would usually link together, but it’s clear that the relationship between the two is growing. Who knows, if Bitcoin continues to grow, we could very well be seeing more cryptocurrency-based football transfers in the future!
