NIL Has Partnered Kentucky Basketball and FTX Cryptocurrency
The NIL deals are starting to pile in for the Men's Basketball Team at the University of Kentucky.
From Porsche car deals, to restaurant dinners paid for, to cameo videos all the way to radio ads. The name, image, likeness world is going to be coming from all sorts of directions for the basketball team simply because they are college basketball. The brand of Kentucky Basketball, the reach it has and the amount of fans that will support whatever its players tell them to are the main factors to why these deals are coming in at a hot rate.
The Kentucky Basketball team has inked a deal with West Realm Shires Services Inc. to be 'ambassadors' of FTX US, a US-regulated cryptocurrency exchange.
“We’re thrilled to work with players from one of the most successful collegiate basketball programs in the country,” said Avi Dabir, Vice President of Business Development at FTX.
This is a deal that the entire basketball roster can take place in, scholarship or not. Each individual player will earn money through FTX, where they can receive payment on a personal debit card using US dollars. Players also have the option to create nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on the FTX NFT marketplace. “Outside of the well-deserved financial compensation, we will be assisting in the student athletes’ education of digital assets so that they can make informed investment decisions as they look to enter the space.”
“We’re excited to come on board as a team and look forward to learning more about the world of cryptocurrency from one of the top companies in the industry,” said second-year UK star, Davion Mintz.
If you're anything like me, all of these new types of cryptocurrencies are getting to be too much to keep up with, and hard to understand it all. I searched the internet and found a clear cut definition of what exactly FTX US is: FTX is incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda and headquartered in The Bahamas. As of July 2021, the exchange is averaging $10 billion of daily trading volume and has over one million users. FTX operated FTX US, a separate exchange available to US residents. FTX Exchange is a leading centralized cryptocurrency exchange specializing in derivatives and leveraged products. Founded in 2018 by MIT graduate and former Jane Street Capital international ETF trader Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX offers a range of innovative trading products, including derivatives, options, volatility products, and leveraged tokens. It also provides spot markets in over 100 different trading pairs, such as BTC/USDT, ETH/USDT, XRP/USDT, and its native token FTT/USDT.
Outside of Kentucky Basketball, FTX is also the official cryptocurrency exchange of Major League Baseball, sponsor and name holder of the FTX Arena, where the Miami HEAT play. Current, well-known FTX ambassadors include, but is not limited to, Tom Brady, Stephen Curry, Trevor Lawrence, David Ortiz, and Udonis Haslem.
This is the biggest NIL deal to date, and it is no wonder that it is being done here in Lexington. At the end of the day, players want to be covered financially and this will be another (and the leading) avenue to get elite talent to come here.