Press Release: Will The NFL Season Affect Bitcoin Transactions?

Preseason is almost here. We are just a week or so away from getting to see our favorite players, and all of the up-and-comers start to take the field.

So what does this have to do with Bitcoin? 

Well … a lot of sports betting sites around the globe favor the cryptocurrency and often offer faster withdrawals via Bitcoin. We also know that in the United States, NFL betting moves a lot of money each season. But will the NFL season be enough to impact Bitcoin transactions on a global scale? 

Maybe.

Pay Me in Bitcoin!

There has been a recent outcry for players to be paid in Bitcoin. Yes, you heard that correctly. Certain players are lobbying to get their respective NFL teams to pay them in the world’s most popular cryptocurrency. 

It all started with Russell Okung and Matt Barkley. The Los Angeles Chargers offensive lineman tweeted out, “Pay me in Bitcoin” back on May 13th. But he wasn’t done yet. Shortly after, he tweeted again about how “dope” it would be to see an ESPN headline about an athlete being paid in Bitcoin. Naturally, the crypto-community jumped at the opportunity to engage. 

Apparently, Okung’s newfound passion for crypto is infectious. He has reported that other NFL players are coming to him with questions about the Bitcoin market.

It was also leaked that Matt Barkley had tried to get both of his contracts with the Cincinnati Bengals and San Francisco 49ers paid in the coin. That said, neither franchise would do so. He also eluded to the fact that he is fully entrenched in Bitcoin by Tweeting out a reply that states he is already mining the currency. 

If we started seeing professional athletes get their contracts fulfilled in Bitcoin it would definitely affect BTC transactions. Not only would we see an influx of multimillion-dollar transactions, but the fact that star athletes have adopted BTC for their salary would catch like wildfire, and fans would jump on board as well; potentially in the millions. Sure it would start off in the thousands, but fans across the world watching their favorite athletes put their trust in the crypto-markets would spread awareness exponentially. 

This may not be as far off as you think. The Miami Dolphins recently partnered with Litecoin. Now fans can use Litecoin and BTC at the Hard Rock Stadium to purchase Miami Dolphins’50/50 raffle tickets. 

LTC also teamed up with the UFC recently to advertize the Litecoin logo on the mat of a major UFC event. So, the sporting world is starting to take notice and even though those examples were LTC, not BTC, it still bodes well for the ‘original’ coin because trust in the crypto-market is trust in cryptocurrencies in general. 

When you add to the fact that more and more sportsbooks are featuring BTC, LTC,  and ETH as fast and safe ways to fund accounts and withdraw winnings, we are likely to see at least a marginal increase in BTC transactions in 2019. The most recent count (at time of writing) was 331,268 transactions per day. 2019 is already looking like it will be at least the second-biggest year for BTC as far as the number of transactions. The tail end of 2017 saw a huge spike, reaching nearly 500,000 on December 13th, and the entire month of December in 2017 was killer. But on May 1st of the year, the 450k bubble was popped. So, we have a similar late fall and early winter to 2017, the 2019 averages will set BTC transaction records. 

NFL betting and increased awareness in professional sports could play a big part.

This is a press release. Trustnodes has not undertaken any verification of any of the above statements and any statement or project contained therein is not necessarily endorsed by Trustnodes. Readers are strongly urged to do your own research.