Binance has become a sponsor of the Argentine national team and the country’s Primera División, as the crypto-exchange looks to further strengthen its sporting links. 

In addition to securing sponsorship rights to the national team ahead of the World Cup and the professional league, Binanace will also develop a Fan Token as a result of the five-year agreement with the Argentine Football Association (AFA). 

According to the firm, the Fan Token will be ‘launched on the market shortly’, whilst the company has also lauded the deal as its first collaboration with a national football team, ahead of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar later this year.

He Yi, Co-Founder and CMO of Binance, said: “Football and cryptocurrencies are life in Argentina, so it makes sense for Binance to partner with AFA. 

“Through this agreement, we hope to support Argentina’s football at all levels and introduce Binance, the crypto world and blockchain to football fans across the country and globally.”

The agreement represents an expansion of its sports-oriented commercial strategy, following on from similar partnerships clinched with the ongoing 2021 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and Italian Serie A side Lazio, as interest in blockchain, crypto and Fan Tokens in the sporting space continues to grow.

“At Binance we’re very happy to be able to walk along AFA on its path through the blockchain world,” added Maximiliano Hinz, Binance’s General Director for Latin America.

“We want to bring all the benefits of our platform to the public of the national team through this agreement. The fan token is going to bring many new features so that the public can have a much closer relationship with the national team. We look forward to its release.”

For Argentine football, the agreement marks a further enhancement of the scene’s connections with blockchain, cryptocurrency and the burgeoning Fan Token sector, building on the AFA’s prior agreement with Chiliz’ platform Socios.com – which has launched a national team Fan Tokena and serves as the primary sponsor of the top-flight league for the 2021 season. 

Additionally, towards the end of last year the AFA signed a naming rights agreement with Bybit, another cryptocurrency exchange, in a two-year partnership. The sporting body has previously described itself as one of the ‘fastest’ national associations to capitalise on the cryptocurrency.

Commenting on the partnership with Binance, Claudio Tapia, President of the AFA, said: “In recent years we have added many important commercial agreements, significantly increasing the income of the AFA, in addition to venturing into new digital businesses with ample growth potential. This agreement with Binance meets all the conditions we are looking for.”

“It is a leading global brand in its field, innovative and with a vision of creating new digital assets. We are very happy with the addition of Binance as a trading partner of the AFA. This is an alliance that is undoubtedly strategic and will generate excellent results for both parties.”

Expert Analysis: As blockchain and cryptocurrency continue to rise in popularity and mainstream acceptance, there has been a concurrent rise in the number of football organisations leveraging the services of firms in this sector as well as Tokenisation for fan engagement and revenue generation purposes.