On top of causing one of the worst crashes in cryptocurrency’s history, the FTX collapse also left a huge impact on American Sports. Luckily for the Los Angeles Angels, their business team are ‘Dodgers‘ for bad deals.
The now bankrupt exchange became known for boasting millionaire sponsorships with prestigious sports teams and organizations. It became the official name-owner of the Miami Heat’s basketball court, now known as “FTX Arena.” The defunct CEX was also the official sponsor of Mercedes-Benz Formula 1 tea, one of the top F1 race car entities in the world.
Sam Bankman-Fried proposed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for the Mercedez sponsorship. Also another $135-million to purchase the Miami Heat’s arena naming rights; This deal done with Miami-Date county, paid over for 19 years.
Given that the exchange just declared bankruptcy, both of these companies will likely have to go through a lengthy legal procedure in order to receive even a quarter of the multi-million amounts established in the FTX arrangements.
Angels Dodged A Bad Deal
With that said, it is safe to say that the Los Angeles Angels embodied their cross-town rivals for a second, in hindsight. The Anaheim team were dodgers as they ‘dodged a bullet‘ by not signing with FTX back in June. Just a couple of months ago, the Angels were actually very close to signing a multi-million sponsorship deal with the now bankrupt exchange.
The exact amounts of the deal were not made public, nor were the reason for it falling off. At the time, SportsMedia claimed that the depreciation of crypto was the reason for the deal falling off.
However, speculations are that it involved hundreds of millions of dollars in order to have FTX’s brand printed on Angel’s jerseys.
Imagine that if sight for fans of the Anaheim that had money in FTX! Those fans would have to see the company that ripped the off, every time a game on.
Luckily however, this situation was avoided. It’s the reality for fans of the Los Angeles Kings, Lakers, Sparks, and Clippers. Also the Miami Heat.
Today, with other sports companies opting to enter a lawsuit against the cryptocurrency exchange in order to see some amount of their money, the Angels are undoubtedly better off without the FTX sponsorship.
Pitcher Shohei Ohtani Not So Lucky
One of the baseball team’s major players, Shohei Ohtani, did not have the same faith as his team.
Back in October, Ohtani signed a 5-year deal with the exchange, in order to become one of the major brand ambassadors in the MLB.
Mr. Ohtani’s partnership was welcomed by FTX’s founder and CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried:
“Shohei has become a transcendent player in baseball in just a short period of time and this,” SBF said at the time. “Combined with his support of digital assets, made it an easy choice to enter into a partnership with him.”
However, a couple of months after the deal, the exchange collapsed. Today, Ohtani is named in a class-action lawsuit against FTX.
The lawsuit claims that Ohtani — alongside several other athletes and actors like Tom Brady and Larry David — promoted the cryptocurrency exchange without conducting any investigation and “funneled funds into the FTX Ponzi scam,” leading consumers to lose $11 billion.
