Marking a steady increase in the crypto world’s activities in sports partnerships and sponsorship, Dutch crypto firm, Libereum has announced its acquisition of Spanish soccer club, Elche CF.
Libereum is a Dutch crypto company which aims to make cryptocurrency widely accessible to the average person. By investing in football clubs, the company intends to generate unlimited demand for the Liber. Within 12 months of purchasing the first football club, Libereum aims for the Liber to become one of the top 10 major crypto coins. Libereum works together with reputable blockchain experts and organisations specialised in crypto-payment networks and with specialists from the football industry.
Libereum took ownership of Elche CF, a club in the Spanish league’s second division, on December 26th in an important step in the company’s aim to connect the decentralised digital currency, the Liber, with the most popular sport in the world, football. Through this acquisition, Libereum is pushing forward progress in its aim to create a high worldwide demand for cryptocurrency with as wide an audience as possible. The move was made after carrying out a full evaluation of the Club and once a first down payment of E4.3 million in the form of a bank guarantee was made. Libereum could see significant potential in Elche CF and has stated its intention of bringing the club into the First Division over the next 2 – 3 seasons, providing the necessary financial back up.
Elche CF is a traditional football club from the Valencia region, founded in 1923 and playing in the First Division for 21 seasons. The Club has a devout following of loyal fans and owns the Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero, which offers space for more than 35,000 spectators and hosted the recent international match between Spain and Croatia.
“The purchase of Elche CF, a beautiful football club that shares our vision of a cryptocurrency future and is willing to actively communicate it to its supporters, is fantastic news” says Cem Kumlar, founder of Libereum. “The team has been working very hard to achieve this and I would like to express my thanks to all those who have contributed to this impressive and intensive process. I would like to stress that Libereum, despite its majority interest, has no intention of changing the football organisation of Elche CF.”
Libereum states that there are two main driving factors behind the takeover. Firstly they want to inject the finance necessary to bring the club back to the First Division, and, importantly, it is using this acquisition to lever demand for the Liber: “And that is where our digital coin comes in. We want the coin (token) to gradually become part of the financial policy in and around the club, so that everything – on the term – can be paid simply, in an easily accessible way, with Liber. Think of sponsor and transfer deals to ticket sales, merchandising items and catering in the stadium. Due to the continuing demand for the token, it becomes a scarcity of goods, which will positively influence the market value. This return can be used as a capital injection. And just think what the increase in value of the Liber token will be if we buy several football clubs. To be continued!”
The acquisition demonstrates a deepening of the relationship between crypto and football. In August, eToro, whose subsidiary, eToroX is a firm regulated in Gibraltar, launched partnerships with a number of English Premier League clubs. A little earlier this year, Gibraltar United introduced the use of cryptocurrency as payment for its players. With the world’s most popular sport rapidly embracing cryptocurrency, and the NBA also showing interest, it seems inevitable that the world of sport will swiftly bring crypto into its mainstream finance.
