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European football giant Benfica has made an important announcement not only for its fans but for the crypto community as well. Now if you want to buy a match ticket or club merchandise, you can pay using crypto. The payments are to be accepted in Bitcoin, Ethereum and UTK token.
Despite it’s not the first time we see words “football” and “crypto” in one sentence, today’s news marks an important milestone. Earlier, cryptocurrencies have never been accepted as regular payment in the football industry.
A year ago, a similar initiative was undertaken during the World Cup in Russia. Football fans had an opportunity to buy tickets for matches paying in BTC. But it was only once. Such a scheme hasn’t become a regular one.
Be as it may, now crypto transaction will be employed in full around the Estádio da Luz – Benfica’s home stadium. This move has become possible thanks to the supports of UTRUST. It is a crypto payments processing firm that uses UTK, its own ETH-based token.
According to the information provided, UTRUST’s core technology will ensure the highest level of security and convenience of cryptocurrency payments for Benfica. Moreover, the usage of this UTRUST’s solution will guarantee protection for the club from market volatility. Thanks to UTRUST, it will be possible to reduce processing fees as well as to avoid inconvenient credit-card chargebacks.
Domingos Soares de Oliveira, Benfica CEO, explained that their decision to add cryptocurrencies as a payment option is based on the current demands of the society. He noted that said the club must “stay ahead of the curve”.
“[We] recognize that many of our supporters are now digital users first so we want to be ahead of the curve when it comes to accepting novel technologies,” he added.
Football and Crypto Industry
Over the last several years, football has turned out to be one of the most crypto-friendly popular industries.
To prove this, it will be just enough to recollect a number of football clubs that have established cooperation with Socios.com – blockchain-based fan engagement platform, which can provide a wide range of crypto options to support interaction between clubs and their fans.
Such prominent footballing giants as Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, Premier League club West Ham United FC have already entered in a partnership with the platform to launch their own fan tokens.
Moreover, it is known that one of the most famous football players in the world Ronaldinho has also launched his own token. And not so long ago, in April, Bitcoin SV (BSV) became a new shirt sponsor of Scottish football team Ayr United FC.
