London Lions basketball team partners with BitPay
The London Lions – one of Europe’s biggest basketball teams – have teamed up with crypto platform BitPay in a partnership that will allow fans to buy merchandise and tickets using cryptocurrency.
The move will enable fans to transact with the club using more than 100 different crypto wallets and exchanges including Coinbase, Exodus Wallet and Trust Wallet. Club merchandise can be purchased immediately using crypto, and it is understood ticket purchases through BitPay will be available soon.
With basketball rapidly rising in popularity throughout the UK, the London Lions – based at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford – continue to gain more fans, selling out the CopperBox Arena for last month’s visit from Paris, with an additional 4,000 fans attending their recent game with Israeli side Hapoel Tel Aviv in the EuroCup.
Prioritising the fan community, BitPay will work with the club as part of a long-term commitment to increase financial literacy and general awareness around cryptocurrency and effective money management. Through a community-led programme of knowledge sharing and practical experience, the Lions and BitPay hope to equip fans with the skills, understanding and confidence needed to manage finances and transactions in a future-facing, secure manner.
“We stand strongly behind the belief that sport is a vehicle for social impact in society, with money management and future facing financial literacy being some of the most important pillars,” said Jonathan Lutzky, Operating Partner of 777 Partners.
“As a result, we’re really excited to see this landmark relationship evolve, enabling fans to transact with the club in a new way whilst also increasing awareness around cryptocurrency.”
Merrick Theobald, Vice President of Marketing at BitPay, added: “The London Lions realise the potential for crypto to transform the UK professional sports industry, making payments faster, more secure, and less expensive on a global scale. Our goal at BitPay is to make accepting crypto a seamless process and increase adoption as we believe crypto is the future of payments.”
The London Lions are the capital’s only professional basketball team and one of the UK’s premier clubs that also competes against Europe’s elite. Serving as testament to their success, this season the men’s team became the first British team to compete in the prestigious EuroCup since 2007. The women’s team have won every domestic competition since joining the Women’s British Basketball League in 2014, and even completed a domestic clean sweep last season.