ICC puts FTX T20 World Cup sponsorship on hold amid crypto exchange crisis

The future of the International Cricket Council’s global partnership with crumbling cryptocurrency exchange FTX appears uncertain after the global sporting body confirmed the suspension of FTX branding and promotions at Australia’s ongoing men’s T20 World Cup.

FTX, the crypto trading platform valued at US$32 billion in January this year, saw its valuation collapse this week in one of the most dramatic downfalls of the so-called ‘crypto winter’.

After the platform suffered a liquidity crunch and barred most users from withdrawing their funds, the ICC, which penned a global sponsorship deal with FTX in late 2021, confirmed it will put the partnership on hold.

“The ICC’s partnership with FTX is under review until there is greater clarity over the future of the company,” a spokesperson told SmartCompany on Friday.

“As a consequence of this, where practical, all FTX branding and promotions at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 have been removed.”

In October 2021, the ascendant FTX penned a global sponsorship deal with the ICC covering not just the T20 World Cup, which is currently taking place in Australia, but “all ICC properties”.

“It is an honour to be a part of the men’s and women’s cricket tournaments and we look forward to building a strong relationship with the International Cricket Council in the years to come,” FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said at the time.

As the FTX crisis unfolded this week, its branding remained on display at T20 World Cup matches, including Pakistan’s semifinal win over New Zealand in Sydney on Wednesday.

From last night 🙂 pic.twitter.com/L1CCrIOg9H

— MrQuick_ (@MrQuick_) November 9, 2022

At the time of writing, FTX is still listed as an official partner on the ICC website.

“Diamond hand” match highlight clips also remain online, with ‘diamond hands’ a crypto-community term for holding on to assets even as their valuation plummets.

But with Sunday’s final between England and Pakistan likely to draw millions of viewers worldwide, the decision will remove FTX branding from one of the most-watched sporting events of the year.

While the valuation of the ICC deal was not disclosed, cryptocurrency firms have splashed out on hugely expensive sports sponsorships in recent years as digital tokens burst into the mainstream.

Beyond the global cricket deal, FTX also committed to a 19-year, US$135 million deal for the naming rights to the Miami Heat’s NBA stadium in 2021.

And as the FTX crisis sparked a review at the ICC, Miami-Dade County, the Florida municipality which owns The FTX Arena, is now on high alert.

“We are closely monitoring it. We are exploring all possible avenues to prepare ourselves,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told local reporters this week.

Partnership on hold after FTX crisis

This crisis began with a Coindesk report that FTX’s sister company, the trading firm Alameda Research, held an enormous proportion of its assets in FTX’s own bespoke FTT token.

Concerns over the proportion of FTT held by Alameda Research caused rival exchange Binance to announce a liquidation of its own sizable FTT holdings.

That news unsettled the market, convincing even more FTT holders to exchange their holdings. The rush caused a liquidity crisis at FTX, which eventually barred user withdrawals.

The situation worsened through the week as further reports exposed complex ties between FTX and Alameda Research.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Sam Bankman-Fried, the chief executive officer of FTX and founder of Alameda Research, admitted to investors that FTX loaned capital to Alameda Research using funds everyday users deposited on the exchange.

The total size of Alameda Research’s debt to FTX: US$10 billion, Bankman-Fried reportedly said.

After Binance backed out of a deal that would have seen it acquire the floundering FTX, Sequoia Capital, which invested $150 million into FTX.com and separate entity FTX.us, this week wrote down the value of its holdings to $0.