The Premier League club, Chelsea FC has announced a new collaboration with cryptocurrency startup Amber Group in which cryptocurrency platform WhaleFin will become the club’s new sleeve sponsor beginning in the 2022/23 season.
The financial details of the agreement were not released. Although as reports suggest, the deal is worth £20 million (US$24.4 million) per year.
WhaleFin takes over as Chelsea’s sleeve sponsor from Hyundai. However, the Korean carmaker is now reportedly in talks with the club over a ‘different commercial tie-up’.
The agreement comes less than a week after Chelsea announced that a group led by Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly had agreed to purchase the club for £4.25 billion (US$5.19 billion).
The announcement comes despite Chelsea’s continued commercial constraints following the UK government’s punishment of exiting owner Roman Abramovich in March in reaction to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Hyundai and Three, Chelsea’s main shirt sponsor, both suspended their contracts as a result of this.
Chelsea was unable to form profitable new agreements because of the constraints.
Guy Laurence, chief executive of Chelsea, said: “As Amber Group continue to expand coverage of their platform globally, they will now have the ability to not only speak to the hundreds of millions of loyal Chelsea fans around the globe but also be seen by the billions who tune into the Premier League each season.”
Michael Wu, chief executive of Amber Group, said: “With the beautiful game’s ability to rally a global audience regardless of culture, language and nationality, we are excited to showcase the full potential of digital assets to an international audience.
“With a storied club history backed by a world-class team, Chelsea FC is a class act that we are proud to partner with, as we bring digitisation and crypto finance to global users.”