“The Showdown” golfers will receive crypto and $10 million in prize money

The annual golf exhibition, now known as “The Showdown,” takes place Tuesday evening in Las Vegas, pitting a PGA Tour team of Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler against the LIV Golf team of Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka.

According to a report from Front Office Sports last month, a whopping $10 million in prize money will be up for grabs. And as a little surprise, it will be distributed to the participating golfers in the form of a cryptocurrency.

Title sponsor Crypto.com said in a press release that the event will be “the first-ever major golf tournament to pay out multi-million dollar prize money in CRO cryptocurrency.” (CRO stands for Cronos, the primary cryptocurrency of Crypto.com, a Singapore-based crypto exchange.)

But “The Showdown” isn’t the cryptocurrency industry’s first foray into the world of sports. And the golfers won’t be the first professional athletes to receive some or all of their income in crypto.

Watch The Showdown on Sling

In 2019, the NFL lineman said, “Pay me in Bitcoin.”

Nearly five years ago, former NFL offensive lineman Russell Okung posted a four-word statement on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Pay me in Bitcoin.”

About 18 months later, he actually put this into action by converting half of his $13 million base salary for the 2020 NFL season into Bitcoin, a digital currency that is bought and sold online using a type of encryption technology called blockchain becomes.

Okung was not technically paid in Bitcoin. The Carolina Panthers paid him in US dollars, which he then exchanged using a Zap crypto product called “Strike.” But his investment in the volatile digital currency has paid off, with the value of a single Bitcoin rising from around $27,000 in 2020 to over $100,000 on Monday.

“I enjoy the victory lap,” he told Sportico last month. “It was incredible timing and story.”

THE SHOWDOWN:Date, time and how to watch the best golfers compete in Las Vegas

Okung has since announced the launch of Bitball, a sports company that will pay its athletes in Bitcoin.

Other athletes have reportedly converted their salaries into cryptocurrencies

New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, recently released NFL wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and Dallas Mavericks guard Klay Thompson are among the other athletes who have publicly stated that they have been involved in some cases in recent years would convert a portion of their salary into cryptocurrency as part of an apparent sponsorship agreement.

Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence is said to have invested his rookie signing bonus in cryptocurrencies as part of an endorsement deal with cryptocurrency exchange FTX. However, he has since denied this claim and FTX has since gone bankrupt.

Some of the athletes who have converted salary money into cryptocurrencies have taken to social media in recent weeks to celebrate the rising value of their investment. Crypto values have skyrocketed since the re-election of Donald Trump, who is a proponent of digital currencies and has expressed his desire to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet.” However, experts warn that the value of cryptocurrencies can rise and fall more than other investments.

“It is important to understand that all cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, are highly volatile, unregulated and largely misunderstood,” Investopedia Editor-in-Chief Caleb Silver told USA TODAY last week.

Crypto prize money for athletes

In its press release, Crypto.com described the prize pot for “The Showdown” as being in the millions, without describing how the money would be distributed between the winning and losing teams, or the $10 million total reported by Front Office Sports to confirm. The company’s media department did not immediately respond to a message seeking further information about the prize money.

DeChambeau, who will represent the Saudi-backed golf league LIV, said in the press release that it was “beyond exciting” to be able to compete for “a true first with cryptocurrency-based prize money.”

However, this is not the first time that athletes have received prize money in the form of crypto. Each player from the two teams that competed in the WNBA’s Commissioner’s Cup last season received $5,000 in cryptocurrency through the event’s sponsor, Coinbase. This prize was in addition to the league’s regular prize pool of $500,000.

What’s in it for crypto companies?

Crypto.com’s sponsorship of “The Showdown” is one of its many deals in the world of sports.

In 2021, the company acquired the naming rights to the downtown Los Angeles basketball and hockey arena formerly known as Staples Center. Since then, the company has signed sponsorship agreements with Formula 1 and the UEFA Champions League, among others.

David Carter, a sports business professor at USC and founder of Sports Business Group, described the sponsorship investments from cryptocurrency companies like Crypto.com as “a branding land grab” aimed at building recognition, particularly among young people.

With “The Showdown,” Crypto.com is essentially taking a two-pronged marketing approach by sponsoring both the event and the prize. Carter wrote in an email that this is not a new concept, citing major automakers that have sponsored events and given away cars. But he added that it can be effective.

“Anytime a company can have multiple and credible points of contact with fans, it is beneficial to them,” he wrote. “This is especially true given the hope of converting them into loyal, long-term customers.”

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