The Super Bowl earlier this month marked a turning point in popular crypto usage. Several prominent crypto firms sponsored the event, called the “Crypto Bowl”, by some marketers.
The platforms that displayed their advertisements during the game were Crypto.com, Coinbase, and FTX. A similar effort was attempted by major gambling firms. The aim of the sponsors was to appeal to regulators and customers.
When Super Bowl Became Crypto Bowl
There has been a rising trend among platforms allowing players to gamble using their preferred cryptocurrency, including altcoins like Stellar, since they have the advantage of a lower transaction cost. Stellar gambling has become more popular since it gives players a good number of benefits.
Marketers were right in terming it Crypto Bowl since the crypto brands stole the major spotlight. Every crypto brand that advertised during the game experienced a sudden gain in the market.
Coinbase was one of the platforms to have displayed its advertisement during the Super Bowl. After the Super Bowl, the ranking of its mobile application jumped to the second spot from 186th position on the Apple App Store.
This happened overnight, with the idea behind the advertisement gaining all the credit.
The advertisement for Coinbase ran for one minute. It featured a color-changing QR code floating across the screen, prompting viewers to scan it. The QR code was linked to a sign-up page for new and existing users.
New users who scanned the QR code were offered an incentive of $15 Bitcoin. Existing users who scanned the QR code were offered a chance to sign-up for a $3 million Bitcoin competition.
The advertisement was viewed by around 99.18 million viewers in the United States of America, with many of them actually scanning the QR code. This resulted in its servers crashing, but not for too long.
The ad cost Coinbase approximately in the range of $7 million to $14 million.
FTX and Crypto.com ran their respective advertisements as well. These were their first-ever advertisements.
FTX featured Luddite Larry David, who raised his eyebrows at FTX app after delivering dialogue on the technological advances that have been made till now. Crypto.com signed up Lebron James, showing him talking to the younger version of himself and saying Fortune Favors The Brave.
Of course, gambling companies were present during the Super Bowl, including DraftKings, Caesars, and FanDual.
While crypto-gambling has grown into its own business, the big-name legacy gaming companies have yet to fully embrace it. It is mostly unregulated, and it has its own risk and volatility taboos, making its integration into conventional gaming products difficult.
