Arsenal football club has signed a partnership deal with CashBet as it prepares to launch an ICO for its own cryptocurrency, the CashBet Coin.
This marks a major first in both the worlds of football and of cryptocurrency, as Arsenal becomes the very first major club to promote a digital currency.
In the run up to the ICO of CashBet Coin on the 24th of January, Arsenal will promote the digital currency at the Emirates Stadium during home games.
CashBet intends for coins to be purchased and then used to make bets, and it has ambitions to rake in $40 million from investors following the upcoming ICO.
Arsenal’s chief commercial officer Vinai Venkatesham said: “We are looking forward to working with CashBet Coin as they launch their new crypto-currency.”
Some controversy has arisen following the business move, with critics expressing concern that the high-profile, influential club is backing the volatile world of cryptocurrency.
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According to the BBC, an Arsenal spokesman said in response the question of whether it was encouraging fans to bet on the currency: “Not at all. The partnership aims to promote CashBet Coin ahead of their Initial Coin Offer on 24 January… It does not exist to encourage fans to bet with CashBet Coin.”
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Bitcoin has become the notorious figurehead of the cryptocurrency world, having almost reached a value of $20,000 per BTC in 2017. Since then the currency has been true to its reputation of volatility, collapsing dramatically.
Very recently the major payment processing organisation, Stripe, dropped its support for Bitcoin due to its instability, but it maintained that it views cryptocurrency very positively. Despite the concern surrounding Bitcoin, it has paved the way to the high-profile gained by cryptocurrencies globally.
Another European step forward on the cryptocurrency front took place this week when the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, bitFlyer, gained an Operational License in Europe.
