Major Portuguese sports club SL Benfica now accepts cryptocurrency for merchandise and tickets, Verdict reports on June 6.
According to the report, SL Benfica partnered with cryptocurrency service Utrust to provide the new payments option. Fans and customers can now buy tickets any products on the club’s website with Utrust’s native token (UTK), or with top cryptocurrencies bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH).
Utrust purportedly supports instant crypto-to-fiat conversions, allowing SL Benfica to essentially pocket its revenue directly in cash. The press release explains that this allows the club to avoid issues around the volatility of cryptocurrencies, while still making use of blockchain technology for conducting secure transactions.
SL Benfica reportedly has around 7 million fans active on social media, and around double that amount of total fans worldwide. Benfica says it is aiming to further grow its fanbase with its new crypto payments option, hyping up the new payment to fans as being the cheapest, safest, and fastest option for online transactions.
SL Benfica CEO Domingos Soares de Oliveira commented on its significant digital fanbase, saying:
“We recognise that many of our supporters are now digital users first, so we want to be ahead of the curve when it comes to adopting novel technologies and giving our supporters the best online experience.”
As previously reported by Cointelegraph, English Premier League football team West Ham United has partnered with the blockchain platform Socios.com to create a “fan token ecosystem.” The fan tokens will be used to encourage spectator engagement via token-based polls, rewards and games, and merch available on the Socios platform.