The National Football League spent over $600,000 lobbying on blockchain technology during the second half of 2021.
According to disclosure reports, the NFL has lobbied Congress and different government agencies including the Securities and Exchange Commission. Aside from the SEC, the NFL also lobbied the White House Office, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Commerce.
The league has been pushing for a variety of issues including “federal regulation of sports betting”. On the disclosure reports, the NFL had two Capitol Hill veterans working as NFL lobbyists.
Brendon Plack started working for the NFL in 2019 as its senior vice president of public policy and government affairs. Before he worked for the NFL, Plack was chief of staff to former Senate Majority Whip John Thune.
Aside from Plack, there is also Jonathan Nabavi who started working for the league’s government affairs office in 2017. Nabavi worked for Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa when the senator was still the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Cryptocurrency as an Integral Part of NFL’s Business
The league’s goal is to determine whether cryptocurrencies can become part of the NFL’s business. The NFL is currently making $10 billion annually.
The NFL lobbying on blockchain technology isn’t exactly surprising. Last year, during the league’s owner meetings in New York, officials decided to have a wait-and-see approach when it comes to crypto-related deals.
In September, the NFL partnered with the National Football league Players Association and Dapper Labs to have digital video highlight NFTs. Then, there are the players who became involved in the crypto space including Tom Brady, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, and Rams’ Odell Beckham Jr.
Crypto Still Under a Gray Area
The SEC chaired by Gary Gensler is still trying to regulate different forms of crypto. The SEC chief promised to come up with rules that will protect investors, but until today, there are still no concrete guidelines. Instead, the SEC weighs in on each case whether a crypto-related project falls under registered securities and therefore falls under their jurisdiction.
Crypto’s Presence During Super Bowl Game
Crypto will have a huge advertising presence during the Super Bowl game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals.
Businesses spent millions for an advertising spot. FTX Trading and Crypto.com are among the companies that managed to have spots in Sunday’s Super Bowl. Just how much are crypto companies paying? A 30-second ad costs $6.5 million according to NBC.
Why spend all that money? The Super Bowl’s audience is quite diverse. 4 out of 10 viewers are within the 18 to 49 demographic, the perfect crowd targeted by crypto companies. But of course, the number of crypto ads on Super Bowl doesn’t guarantee success. In Super Bowl 2000, more than a dozen new internet companies advertised on that year’s game. It will later be known as the “dot-com” Super Bowl.
Robert Kolt, Professor of practice at Michigan State University said that “I don’t think the cryptos will be a staple of the Super Bowl—I don’t know how often we’ll see them again”. He added that “The dot-coms went away, and the auto (advertisers) stayed”.
