Manchester United, Tezos Set for Multi-Year $27M Sponsorship Deal

Manchester United is set to unveil a multi-year sponsorship deal with crypto network Tezos, per The Athletic. 

Both parties have reportedly agreed to a deal worth over $27 million per year, and Tezos will be featured on the football club’s training kit. 

The deal will follow Manchester United’s previous eight-year deal with American insurance company AON, which concluded at the end of last season. 

This season, Manchester United’s training kit has gone without a front-facing sponsor. 

The Athletic reports that Manchester United declined to comment on the story, and Tezos—who were contacted—did not respond prior to publication. 

This news follows a long line of crypto-related sports marketing, which has taken the wider world of sports—not just soccer—by storm in recent months. 

Crypto and sports ads

This is not the first time Tezos has embarked on a sports marketing campaign. 

In May 2021, Red Bull’s F1 racing team launched several NFTs on the Tezos blockchain. “Tezos will help us maximize our engagement with our fans through the development of NFTs,” said Christian Horner, the Red Bull Racing Honda CEO, at the time. 

“This is a hugely exciting space in which we’ve been looking for the right partner and in Tezos, we strongly believe we’ve picked a winner that will help us give our fans a new, unique, and innovative way to connect with the team,” added Horner. 

Elsewhere in the sports and soccer world, football giants like FC Barcelona, Juventus, and Manchester City have joined fan token platform Socios. 

It hasn’t all been plain sailing for soccer clubs and their intended embrace of crypto-related campaigns. 

In December last year, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned Arsenal FC fan tokens. 

The ASA said the adverts “trivialized investment in cryptoassets and took advantage of consumers’ inexperience or credulity.”