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Topic: BitPay sponsors U.S. college football (Read 818 times)

legendary
Activity: 3472
Merit: 4801
June 18, 2014, 04:57:01 PM
#8
Since there now appear to be multiple threads discussing this topic:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bitcoin-college-bowl-game-bitpay-656863


https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bitpay-to-sponsor-st-petersburg-bowl-in-first-major-bitcoin-sports-deal-657027
The annual postseason college football game played in St. Petersburg, Florida will for the next four years be known as the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl as part of a sponsorship deal signed between bitcoin payment processor BitPay and ESPN Events.

The arrangement marks one of the most high-profile marketing initiatives yet for a bitcoin-related business and comes as the digital currency continues to gradually make inroads into mainstream commerce.

In an announcement Wednesday, BitPay and ESPN Events, a subsidiary of sports network ESPN, said the name change would take effect at this year's Dec. 26 game and would continue each year through the 2016 game.

The game will air on ESPN. Tickets, which start at $40 each, and associated merchandise will also be available for purchase with bitcoin through Bitpay's processing services.

The St. Petersburg game, which previously bore the name of the Beef O'Brady's chain of sports-themed restaurants, is in its first year of a new college football affiliation with the Atlantic Coast Conference and the American Athletic Conference, each of which will field a team for this year's event.

BitPay's foray into college football sponsorship coincides with a new drive toward bitcoin adoption by retailers and other merchants. Over the past three weeks, satellite TV provider Dish Network and travel site Expedia Inc. have both announced they would accept bitcoin.

In the six months before that, businesses such as online retailer Overstock.com Inc., NBA team the Sacramento Kings and space-tourism provider Virgin Galactic started accepting the digital currency.

Though the deal is the first bitcoin sponsorship for a televised U.S. sporting event, it isn't the first connected to a digital currency. Those honors go to a currency known as dogecoin, which promotes itself via an Internet meme image of a shiba inu dog.

Dogecoin sponsored Nascar's Josh Wise at Alabama's Talladega Superspeedway on May 4. The sponsorship deal cost $55,000, with the funds raised via donations from dogecoin enthusiasts that were denominated in the digital currency.

SOURCE "http://online.wsj.com/articles/bitpay-to-sponsor-st-petersburg-bowl-in-first-major-bitcoin-sports-deal-1403098202"

I'll lock this one.
legendary
Activity: 2114
Merit: 1040
A Great Time to Start Something!
June 18, 2014, 04:45:20 PM
#7
I am going to be honest, I am not a sports person and not a college sports person, but I have heard of the big ten and rose bowl, where does this bowl stack against those?

Lower-tier to be honest. The last ~30 years there has been a massive increase in the number of bowl games. As a result several large schools with only a 7 and 5 record (for example) still get invited to a game.
legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1000
June 18, 2014, 04:35:06 PM
#6
I am going to be honest, I am not a sports person and not a college sports person, but I have heard of the big ten and rose bowl, where does this bowl stack against those?
legendary
Activity: 896
Merit: 1000
June 18, 2014, 04:33:21 PM
#5
Yeah, saw this on Deadspin. Nice news for Bitcoin, after all, BitPay could have called it the BitPay St. Petersburg Bowl. Glad they took the stronger route for Bitcoin in general.

Funny how, that was the main draw for the article, but the article was mostly on a BitPay and the owner's past.

I wonder how many people are actually going to get tickets for this game with bitcoin though? I can see a fair amount of overlap between sports and bitcoin (for example, gambling sites), but I wouldn't be surprised if most of the intersection don't go to games (for example, gamblers).
legendary
Activity: 2114
Merit: 1040
A Great Time to Start Something!
June 18, 2014, 03:11:15 PM
#4
This is good news, and they can compete with the original Bitcoin BowlCheesy

hero member
Activity: 574
Merit: 500
CoinBooster Rep
June 18, 2014, 02:21:14 PM
#3
I heard about this, I haven't actually read it yet.


Thanks for sharing!
legendary
Activity: 1092
Merit: 1001
Touchdown
June 18, 2014, 02:10:56 PM
#2
Awesome
legendary
Activity: 3472
Merit: 4801
June 18, 2014, 02:08:32 PM
#1
BitPay has signed a 3 year deal to sponsor the St. Petersburg Bowl:

http://deadspin.com/there-is-now-a-college-bowl-game-sponsored-by-bitcoin-1592540674/+Tom_Ley

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