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NFL or the National Football League teams were reportedly prohibited by the leagues’ officials from creating and selling non-fungible tokens or NFT collections as well as signing crypto sponsorship deals with digital asset trading companies.
According to The Athletic, the NFL imposed the policy as it has its plans to enter the digital market. The league is said to be eyeing the NFT and crypto market with its own arts and sports digital cards.
While the restriction is said to be temporary, it was not mentioned until when it will take effect. Moreover, the teams are also barred from getting into sponsorship agreements with cryptocurrency exchanges such as the FTX.
Other leading sports associations have already created digital assets like the National Basketball Association (NBA) but the NFL is really being cautious and said to be going slowly before deciding to ease its restrictions. In fact, the basketball league’s Miami Heat signed a deal with FTX, a crypto exchange, worth $135 million for naming rights to its home arena in Florida. Chicago Bulls also created its own NFT collection and partnered with Shopify for its sale.
For cryptocurrency, the NFL will temporarily allow teams to connect with firms that are one step removed from the trading. As long as the sponsorship deal is focused on the company’s corporate brands, it will be allowed for now.
“Clubs are prohibited from selling, or otherwise allowing within club controlled media, advertisements for specific cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings, other cryptocurrency sales or any other media category as it relates to blockchain, digital asset or as blockchain company, except as outlined in this policy,” an anonymous team official was quoted as saying regarding the new NFL rule related to crypto and NFTs.
In any case, Crypto Daily further reported that while many sports teams and leagues worldwide are starting to collaborate with cryptocurrency firms to have their own NFTs and secure exclusive sponsorship deals, it seems that NFL is the least likely to immediately grab related opportunities as it is careful when it comes to jumping into the world of crypto.
