Crypto and Esports | Bybit buys in

The cryptocurrency trading platform Bybit has made quite a splashy entrance into the esports industry. In the last five days they have signed deals with some of the biggest players in the international esports scene.

The partnerships

The teams that have partnered with Bybit are Natus Vincere, Alliance, and Astralis. It seems like Natus Vincere will be the tentpole organisation for Bybit. The Natus Vincere announcement came out first and the team has already named Bybit as their official cryptocurrency partner.

Both Natus Vincere and Astralis have signed on for a full three year partnership deal while Alliance have agreed to a two year deal. All three of the teams will feature Bybit branding on their jerseys as well as integrate it on to their streams and social media pages.

As for the teams, each of them will receive financial support from Bybit as well as future collaborations on initiatives and activities that focus on important social goals of each of the organisation. Astralis will be working with them to promote carbon neutrality and financial education, Natus Vincere have said that they will promote anti-bullying campaigns, and Alliance have yet to announce their initiatives.

The World Series of Trading

Another interesting aspect of the partnerships is the connection to the World Series of Trading. The World Series of Trading is Bybits gamified crypto trading event. Traders and teams are judged on their profit and loss percentages and each player is given an equal start, none of them need financial backing to enter.

Both Astralis and Alliance have committed to sending a portion of their talent to the event to compete for a prize pool of around $7.5 million.

Comments from the organisations

Co-founder and CRO of Astralis, Jakob Lund Kristensen spoke in a press release about their new partnership and the good they could do on the social campaigns:

“We are truly excited about this partnership and working with Bybit. Both companies are pioneers in their field, striving to make a positive impact as organisations, as individuals and via the ongoing global digitalisation.

“This will be done through initiatives and campaigns centred around education and charitable work supporting and promoting a more sustainable agenda in the tech and gaming world.”

Chief Marketing Officer at NAVI, Alexander ‘nervo-‘ Pavlenko wrote in an earlier release about their happiness in being the first esports partner of the crypto platform:

“We’re proud to be a part of Bybit’s global strategy of their integration into the esports world. Even more, it’s a great honour to become their first partner in our sphere worldwide.

“We shall strive to show esports fans the real value of digital-based communication by cryptocurrency platform Bybit and our team. We hope to bring new game-changing and engaging projects to make esports the better place to play together.”

Alliance CEO, Jonathan Berg added:

“Today I’m extremely pleased and excited to announce our two-year partnership with Bybit. I’ve been a crypto and blockchain enthusiast for many years now, and from the start I had a strong belief that there would be a time when our two worlds would mesh. Today, many of us have used crypto or do use crypto for a variety of services and I’m excited to see what the future holds for us.”

The future of the partnerships

This is sure to be a lucrative deal for all of the organisations involved and I wouldn’t be surprised if Bybit doesn’t add a few more teams to their growing list of esports partners. They have even hinted at a future event that would wee their partners collaborate. They haven’t announced any details on it yet, but if the World Series of Trading goes well, there could be even more events down the line.