Coinbase has had an exciting week. After forming a partnership with Facebook to provide support and custody services for its new Novi wallet, the popular digital currency exchange is joining hands with the National Basketball Association (NBA), which some believe will make it possible to pay for merchandise and event tickets with crypto in the coming future.
Coinbase Has Joined Hands with the NBA
The sports association issued a press release claiming that Coinbase will now be the official crypto platforms for several basketball divisions including the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), the NBA G League, and USA Basketball. The release explains:
The deal, which marks the first cryptocurrency platform partnership for each league, will consist of unique content, innovations, activations and experiences from Coinbase to educate fans on the increasing advancements happening across the crypto economy.
Kate Rouch – the chief marketing officer at Coinbase – said that she was excited to be part of the new program. In an interview, she explained:
As part of the partnership, we will create interactive experiences to engage with the NBA and WNBA’s incredible community and athletes around the world.
Kerry Tatlock – the senior vice president of global marketing partnerships and media for the NBA – also put her two cents in, claiming that Coinbase was a perfect fit for the organization. Tatlock said:
We look forward to collaborating with Coinbase to provide fans with new ways to engage with the league and each other, while also enhancing the experience for fans who are already Coinbase users.
As it stands, only two NBA teams accept crypto payments for both tickets and merchandise, one of which is the Sacramento Kings. They were the first team to say “yes” to bitcoin and crypto, having done so in the year 2014. In April of 2021, team managers announced that they would pay all basketball players in bitcoin if they were interested in such an option.
Chairman for the Kings Vivek Ranadive mentioned:
I’m going to offer everyone in the Kings organization… as much of their salary in bitcoin as they want.
Following the Kings, the Dallas Mavericks – which is co-owned by billionaire investor and “Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban – began accepting crypto payments in 2019. Cuban explained that while he, himself, was not a big bitcoin fan at the time, he realized that there was an audience for crypto payments, and thus he was excited to bring new options to the table. He stated:
The Mavericks have decided to accept Dogecoin as payment for Mavs tickets and merchandise for one very important, earth-shattering reason. Because we can! Because we can, we have chosen to do so.
The Mavericks Are Patrons of Dogecoin
Cuban later mentioned in a series of tweets that the Dallas Mavericks were becoming the biggest Dogecoin merchants on the planet. He said:
The @dallasmavs have done more than 20,000 #Dogecoin in transactions.