Floki Scores Major Deals With English Premier League Teams

Meme coin Floki will feature its FLOKI token and Valhalla game on various English Premier League properties as part of an initial one-year contract to help boost visibility for the $1.2 billion capitalization token.

The English Premier League sit on the top tier of England’s football pyramid, and features twenty local teams. It is the most-valued football league as per sports data site Transfermarkt.

Floki has been steadily trying to move away from its meme status, building the metaverse game Valhalla, real-world asset tokenization platform TokenFi, and introducing staking and banking features to boost appeal for the FLOKI token.

FLOKI tokens will be the cryptocurrency partner for Nottingham Forest. Their upcoming game Valhalla will feature on the back of the Sunderland AFC jersey, and will additionally be displayed as on-screen ads throughout all league games.

“It is a potential multi-year agreement and a minimum one-year/season deal,” a Floki team member told CoinDesk in an interview. “Regarding the benefits to Floki holders, there are many such as increased brand awareness & recognition as well as the exposure to our ecosystem and community.”

The team did not reveal specific costs for the various sponsorships, citing deal confidentiality. However, head of marketing Sabre told CoinDesk that there was no bidding process as the team had “direct contacts” – circumventing a key step in such deals.

Crypto teams often sponsor sporting events and notable stadiums to boost the visibility of their projects. In 2021, exchange Crypto.com paid $700 million to gain naming rights for the Staples Centre in Los Angeles. Defunct exchange FTX signed multiple hundred million deals to place its brand on sports centers and avenues worldwide, and crypto project Terra signed a five-year contract worth $40 million, with the Washington Nationals in 2022.

It is unclear, however, how much these partnerships eventually help the brands and influence token prices. But Floki’s Sabre remains upbeat on the prospects.

“Unlike many exchanges and large projects that invest heavily in securing partnerships, we achieve exceptional value by spending a fraction of the cost. Our direct relationships with well-established and highly respected organizations enable us to maximize our impact in the blockchain space.”

“As we’ve seen with similar timing and partnerships from top exchanges, we expect this exposure to capture retail interest as we approach and enter 2025,” they added.