Blockchain technology is not only confined to the banking sector, but it also influences the future of football sports (World Football Summit, 2018). Football clubs kicked off blockchain technology and cryptocurrency in their sector. Arsenal became the first major football club to sign a sponsorship deal with a cryptocurrency company in January 2018 (Cellan-Jones, 2018). Industry experts believe that implementing blockchain into the football sector can manifest not only in-stadium ticketing processes but can enable big clubs to keep track of records related to ticket purchases, merchandising sales, enabling clubs to better market, gamification, loyalty points, and target marketing. Most football clubs are planning to implement blockchain & cryptocurrency transactions to facilitate better experiences for their supporters (Adesina, 2020) to accept cryptocurrencies by introducing a new way of payment mode into software like websites, mobile app, and kiosk machines. The Portuguese football club Benfica has begun selling tickets and merchandise into cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and this was made possible through a partnership with the Utrust platform (Investinblockchain, 2019). The English Premier League (EPL Index, 2020) has announced the integration of blockchain and cryptocurrency. Hong Kong’s OKEx trading platform began cooperating with the English Premier League in November 2018. As a result, several matches between Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool were aired with advertising from the company.
The implementation of a new mode of cryptocurrencies payment can be complex and expensive. The failures of usage of new payment mode i.e. cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum can lead to the loss in the cost of the implementation. So, it is important to understand supporter’s intention and behaviour toward cryptocurrencies adoption. The attitude can predict that how ready supporters are to use cryptocurrencies for club related transactions by measure supporters (customers) behaviour intention. However, low adoption can become a major problem for football clubs in terms of accessing tangible or intangible benefits.
