Top golfers to get Prizes in Bitcoin at the end of the 2022 season in the latest sponsorship deal between Sunshine Tour and Luno, a leading global cryptocurrency company with over 2 million customers in 40 countries. The Sunshine Tour is a men’s professional golf tour based in Southern and East Africa, where men compete for the top spot on the leaderboard. It’s held in numerous African countries like Botswana, Kenya, Mauritius, Tanzania and South Africa.
The winners will receive Fiat prizes as well. The top golfer will receive $31,000 worth of Bitcoin, the golfer that finishes second will receive approximately $12,000 price of Bitcoin, and the 3rd will get $6,000 value of Bitcoin. They will accept their Bitcoin in their Luno accounts. In an interview during the sponsorship announcement, Luno’s General Manager stated, “it’s significant on a couple of fronts, firstly the fact that there is Bitcoin prize money which is a first for South Africa and probably Africa. I think it’s the first sports sponsorship in South Africa involving a crypto company.” He further noted that Luno’s goal was to empower people to access a new financial system and pointed out that having a Crypto award will benefit professional golfers who have a very different way of thinking about risk and reward and off the golf course.
The Sunshine Tour is a well-renowned year-long golf tournament that attracts top golfers, both Professional and Amateurs, from Africa and Europe. The sunshine tour has also announced that it will use the sponsorship to change its ranking system from money based to point base to make even the playing field for golfers eying the prestigious top spot, order of merit. Other prizes include entry spots to two major golf tournaments, United State Open and the British Open, and a yearlong luxury vehicle sponsorship. The entrances of cryptocurrency-based reward systems or financial stimuli seem to slowly replace monetary-based rewards, especially in the sports industry. Over the recent years, we have seen partnerships between Crypto exchanges and Crypto trading organisations with major sporting tournaments. Last month, Ultimate Fighting Champions (UFC) partnered with CryptoCom;
Crypto.com is a cryptocurrency exchange app based in Singapore. CyrptoCom has an Introduced Fan bonus night, in which the top athlete will be rewarded with digital assets worth $30,000, second place will be awarded $20,000, and the third place will be rewarded $10,000 worth. As Kenyan prepares to present its bid to host the World Athletics Championships in 2025, top in the committee’s mind should be having Crypto financial stimulus added to the prize list. Imagine the unlimited possibilities that this decision can unlock. Its next step should be partnering with a Crypto trading platform that will develop an international marketing campaign and structure the reward systems to be appealing to international athletes and futuristic. The athletes, just like golfers, careers are constantly changing and unpredictable, and they need to have a sort of assurance of their future. Having crypto or digital assets in their hands and wallets assures this. The athlete can choose to trade or store them for the future. This move will not only present Kenya as a country which is ready for the future in terms of Fintech but will even assure the world of its technical and financial capability.
