Dutch Blockchain Company Libereum Buys Spanish Soccer Club

By Debarun Gupta

In a move that solidifies the connection between the crypto and the sports industry, Dutch crypto company Libereum announced that that it has acquired a Spanish Soccer club named Elche CF, based in the province of Alicante.

The company has made an initial downpayment of €4.3 million ($4.9 million) for Elche FC. Looking beyond simply making a profit, the company, whose goal is “primarily aimed at making cryptocurrency widely accessible to the average person,” has hoped that P2P cash could be used in sports as a means of a payment system in stadiums, club shops, websites and elsewhere.

The club is currently playing in the Segunda División A, which is Spain’s second professional association Soccer division. A part of Libereum’s plans is to bring the club back up to the premier division and make their own cryptocurrency, the Liber as part of the club’s primary method of financing.

In a statement, Liebereum’s founder, Cem Kumlar, said,

“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…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.”

The company’s main goal as of now, behind acquiring Soccer clubs is to ride the wave of enthusiasm that Soccer generates across the world to promote and hopefully increase the use of its coin, the Liber. The company has ambitious goals of overhauling everything from transfer deals and ticket sales to merchandising and stadium catering, aided by cryptocurrency.

However, Libereum isn’t the only crypto company investing in Soccer to further their aims of making cryptocurrency use more accessible. Earlier this year, another company named eToro launched partnerships with seven English Premier League soccer clubs – Brighton & Hove Albion, Cardiff City, Crystal Palace, Leicester City, Newcastle United, Southampton, and Tottenham Hotspur – paying for the deals in Bitcoin Core (BTC).