Manchester City sign up crypto app OKX as training kit partner in eight-figure deal
Cryptocurrency trading app OKX is to become Manchester City’s new training kit partner in a deal understood to be worth tens of millions of pounds per season.
The eight-figure agreement is initially for one season and will see OKX replace Expo 2020 Dubai on the training shirts of both the men’s and women’s team.
The move represents a deepening of the existing commercial relationship between OKX and the Premier League champions, which began in March when it became City’s official cryptocurrency exchange partner.
“We are pleased to expand our relationship with OKX, as they become the Official Training Kit Partner of Manchester City,” said Roel de Vries, chief operating officer of the club’s parent company City Football Group. “OKX and Man City are aligned on values such as innovation and success and for both parties, everything starts with training and education.”
The deal with OKX continues the flood of money from the crypto industry flooding into sport and in particular football in recent months, despite many of the digital currencies plummeting in value.
City’s neighbours and rivals Manchester United signed a training kit partnership with blockchain company Tezos in February believed to be worth £20m a year.
Football has seen a backlash among some supporters towards crypto involvement, including controversial fan tokens and club-related NFT sales.
OKX chief marketing officer Haider Rafique said they were not concerned about any blowback from fans as a result of their deepening involvement with City.
“I’m not expecting it,” he told City PM “We have a story for why we’re doing this: creating a generation of people who are thoughtful investors, who think about training more than buying a Lambo or going to the moon. But I wouldn’t write it off; there are always 5-10 per cent of people who won’t be happy.”
OKX positions itself as advocating a more considered approach to trading at odds with its rival Crypto.com, which has used the slogan “fortune favours the brave”. It says it plans to use City players in marketing materials to draw parallels between the work required to be an athlete and that needed to be a successful trader.
“We’re saying fortune doesn’t favour the brave, it favours the trained and disciplined,” Rafique added. “We want to be the platform that helps people really understand the risk in trading and make sure they have the right discipline to be able to do this so they don’t lose their shirt.”