NBA’s Dallas Mavericks Ticket And Merchandise Cryptocurrency Payment Option Isn’t A Slam Dunk Yet

Dallas Mavericks basketball team’s CTO recently said in an interview that most fans aren’t yet caught up with the team’s cryptocurrency payment option.

As reported by the Front Office Sports media outlet on November 14^th, David Herr, Mavericks chief technical officer, said the team wants their fans to purchase merchandise and tickets in a more flexible manner, this being the reason why they’ve introduced the cryptocurrency payment option. In spite of their efforts to make their use crypto, Herr said the demand for this type of payments is still very low:

“[Users] are pretty low, I don’t want to say infancy, but it’s a select group of people using it […] We did some research, heard some discussions and conversations and one comment was it’s still complicated to 99% of the population. Until it’s more widely accepted, it’s a cottage industry or a neat way to pay.”

Mavericks, the Second NBA Team Accepting Bitcoin as Payment

Dallas Mavericks is the second team in the NBA to accept Bitcoin (BTC) payments for merchandise and tickets. They have introduced the option in mid-August, using BitPay as a cryptocurrency payment processor. Herr said the Mavericks decided to do things this way in order to provide “cool things” for their fans and to respond to a few requests they had on the matter.

Crypto and Blockchain Entering the Sporting Industry

More professional sports teams from all over the world have started to use the blockchain and to offer the cryptocurrency payment option. In October this year, Sacramento Kings was the first ever NBA team to do it, after partnering up with CryptoKaiju to launch as collection of crypto collectibles. Crypto Kaiju is the creator of Kaiju toys that are Ethereum-based. After the collaboration, the team launched a blockchain rewards program in its gaming app.

The Same Goes in Europe Too

FC Bayern Munich, the German football club has also announced they have blockchain-based merchandise for their fans. This has been made possible after closing a partnership with Stryking Entertainment.