How has FTX invested in sports?

To recap, crypto exchange FTX was launched in 2019. Within a couple of years of operation, the platform reached an asset valuation of $32 billion. It has actively used marketing campaigns to raise funds, many of which have been linked to well-known sports brands or companies in the field.

In the second half of 2021 alone, FTX and/or the US division of the FTX US exchange have entered into the following contracts with well-known brands/teams in the US:

  • The right to rename the Miami Heat basketball team’s home stadium to FTX Arena, formerly known as American Airlines Arena;
  • an official partnership and the right to have its insignia placed on the uniforms of Major League Baseball (MLB) teams;
  • a deal with the Golden State Warriors basketball club, which entails signage of the exchange at the Chase Center arena and branding of the G League Warriors teams;
  • a deal with the Washington Wizards and Capitals teams;
  • naming rights to the cybersports team TSM.

FTX logo

The biggest event was the first deal on the list. It was a $135 million contract that was awarded for nineteen years – that’s how long the stadium was renamed FTX Arena. In May 2021, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was interviewed about the deal, and a certain quote should stand out in it. Here’s the entrepreneur’s rejoinder, cited by Decrypt.

Without going into too much detail, I will say that this has been a pretty good year for us. To the point where, frankly, we don’t need to rely on the other eighteen years to have the funds to pay for the terms of the deal.

FTX Arena isn’t so FTX anymore

This is a clear hint that the exchange has allegedly deposited all the money to pay for the contract up front. However, its details are still not revealed: maybe FTX didn’t make the payment in full to Miami Heat management. The basketball club will be looking for a new partner for the naming rights deal anyway – this was recently announced on Miami Heat’s official Twitter page. According to the announcement, the club is now working with Miami-Dade County officials to find a partner.

FTX Arena

Bankman-Fried is also an avid fan of the popular online game League of Legends, so it comes as no surprise that his exchange has been actively PRing a $210 million deal with the cybersports team TSM. One of its conditions is that the team must carry the TSM FTX name for the next ten years.

TSM members have already responded to the FTX bankruptcy with an announcement on Twitter that the team is “consulting with lawyers to determine appropriate next steps to protect the team, staff, fans and players.”

TSM FTX logo building

And that’s not all on cybersport: FTX has signed a seven-year deal with Riot Games to sponsor e-sport tournaments on League of Legends called the Championship Series (LCS). Details of that deal remain a mystery.

Much more “modest” was the partnership FTX with the basketball club Golden State Warriors, as the amount of the deal amounted to only 10 million dollars. Meanwhile, the terms of the deal with Monumental Sports and Entertainment for the Wizards, Capitals and Washington Mystics of the WNBA were not disclosed.

One could list more deals worth tens of millions, some of which FTX has even signed with US university teams. However, what is more interesting are the fees for famous athletes, which were given in the form of a share in the assets of the exchange. Such contracts were signed by celebrities Tom Brady, Trevor Lawrence, Steph Curry, Naomi Osaka and Shohei Ohtani. With FTX bankrupt, their fees are likely to turn to dust.

What will happen to FTX next?

All of the above and dozens of other small deals cost FTX more than $375 million. That amount doesn’t include all sorts of costs like commissions and individual contracts with popular athletes. Now FTX has officially declared bankruptcy and sports teams associated with it are trying to cut all ties with the exchange as soon as possible.

The Formula One racing organisation has already announced that it is suspending the deal and will remove FTX branding from its cars once the current season is over. The same applies to the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team.

It is unlikely that the FTX name will remain in the Miami Heat team arena for long. It’s not just about bankrupting the company, it’s about destroying brand value. It’s also hard to imagine that the FTX patch will remain on the players’ uniforms when the next baseball season opens.

FTX promotions in Formula 1

Of course, FTX is far from the only cryptocurrency exchange to have spent money on sports marketing during the pandemic, when cryptocurrencies were going through a bull run. Coinbase, Crypto.com, Binance and OKX did the marketing, signing sponsorship deals with athletes or selling NFTs tied to a sports star or team. However, none of the aforementioned have, thankfully, been caught in such a scrape so far.

As a final note, it’s worth noting that in his interview in January this year, Bankman-Fried couldn’t exactly answer the question of whether sports marketing works well for a cryptocurrency exchange. But he was confident that sponsorship deals are helping to keep the FTX brand in the limelight. Well, it has indeed become the most talked about topic within the crypto industry over the past week.


In the future, we think cryptocurrency platforms will behave more cautiously with such deals, and their users will be wary of high-profile contracts worth millions of dollars. Still, as the previous week showed, trading platforms are better off being liquid and solvent than just being on the radar of investors. That way they are sure to last much longer.