A little over a decade ago, a white paper was published by one Satoshi Nakamoto that spanned roughly nine pages. It put forth a new and revolutionary way of doing financial transactions, that is a peer to peer electronic cash system meant to remove intermediaries such as big banks.
Fast forward a decade and change and Bitcoin is worth about $40500 CAD as I write this article. (Note, this with its recent China driven slump) In El Salvador, it is recognized as legal tender and very likely it soon will be in Paraguay as well. In the former country, geothermal energy from volcanoes is being looked into as a possible route for more eco-friendly mining. Things have evolved quickly since Satoshi's white paper.
Now, this is a sports blog, not a finance blog. The first two paragraphs are meant to provide context for answering our question today which is: what role will Bitcoin play in the sports world, specifically baseball? What role does it play already?
Before I delve any further into the subject I wish to make the important disclaimer that this article is neither an endorsement nor a condemnation of Bitcoin. I myself do own a modest holding and generally have a positive attitude towards it but I will not advocate for it in this article and merely look at how sports can be affected. You as the reader must decide if you like Bitcoin and if it makes sense for your financial goals and needs. I will simply supply some food for thought.
So how big of a prescece does Bitcoin have in baseball? At the moment, no major league player takes his salary in Bitcoin and while individual players are probably invested, there is no widespread clamour at this time for salaries to be paid in any kind of cryptocurrency. However, the Bitcoin revolution is beginning to take hold in the great American game. At the very start of this season, the Oakland A’s became the first team to accept Bitcoin as payment having done so for the use of a luxury suite during the 2021 season. The A’s president even went so far as to refer to crypto as “a variable and tangible currency”. In other news, the crypto exchange FTX has struck a deal to have its logo appear on umpire’s uniforms starting at this year’s All Star Game and carrying on through the postseason, the first time company logos will be appearing on baseball uniforms be it players or umpires. To top it off, Yankee manager Aaron Boone described Bitcoin as “a big topic of conversation in our clubhouse” in an interview with Stuart Varney of Fox Business.
In other sports, crypto continues to be more and more conspicuous. Again we look at FTX which has acquired the naming rights of the home of the Miami Heat. As noted before, there are now professional athletes who insist on being paid in crypto. Chess is particularly imbued with crypto related advertising. Sports betting is increasingly being exposed to crypto as some betting companies do accept Bitcoin as payment. The owner of the Sacramento Kings has even offered to pay coaches and players in Bitcoin should they be so inclined. The Dallas Mavericks have been accepting it as payment since 2019. So far, the NBA brass has not been hostile to such moves.
Going back to our sport, we cannot be certain how major league owners will receive the idea of potentially paying their staff (players, coaches etc.) in Bitcoin. We cannot be certain either if the league office will be amenable to the idea. My belief is that the league will eventually allow this and perhaps even have some Bitcoin in its coffers. However, given the league’s propensity to a more reactive approach rather than a proactive one, I do not see MLB as leading the way in the mass adoption of crypto in sports but rather following suit once it is shown to be viable. This will likely be a process spanning a few years. Nor do I think that Bitcoin will be a topic of conversation in this year’s CBA negotiations. There are simply too many other topics that are either of high importance to both the league and the union or highly contentious. To add crypto to the mix would likely exacerbate the risks of a work stoppage given the already tense relations between the MLB and MLBPA. However, the realities of the wider world generally seep into sports, and the reality is that crypto is going more mainstream and it will not be long before some player requests to be paid in this manner and/or teams begin to accept payment in Bitcoin. Rob Manfred may not be getting laser eyes anytime soon, but I submit that Major League Bitcoin is less of a pipe dream and more of an imminent new reality as time goes by.
Sources Cited:
[2] https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/sports/as-become-first-in-mlb-to-sell-tickets-for-bitcoin/2507261/
Comments