- Los Angeles' Staples Center sports venue — home to the Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Sparks — will be renamed Crypto.com Arena.
- The crypto exchange paid more than $700 million for the 20-year naming rights, the LA Times reported.
- With the renaming, which kicks in December 25, the Singapore-based company follows marketing moves by the likes of FTX.
Los Angeles' storied Staples Center sports venue is getting a new name — Crypto.com Arena.
The Singapore-based crypto platform scored the marketing slam-dunk by signing a deal with the venue's owner AEG for 20-year naming rights, the companies said Tuesday.
On December 25, the official home of NBA team Los Angeles Lakers will change its logo and in-arena signage for its face-off with the Brooklyn Nets.
Three other professional sports teams — the NBA's LA Clippers, the NHL's LA Kings and WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks — also host their games in the stadium, which has been called the "Staples Center" since it opened in 1999.
Crypto.com shelled out more than $700 million for the rights, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing sources familiar with the terms. That price tag makes it one of the most expensive renaming deals in sports history, it said.
"In the next few years, people will look back at this moment as the moment when crypto crossed the chasm into the mainstream," Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said, according to the report.
As part of the deal, Crypto.com signed up the Lakers and the Kings as official partners. The crypto exchange and NFT marketplace has been on a marketing blitz, and it recently enlisted Hollywood actor Matt Damon for a branding campaign to drive growth from its existing 10 million users.
Other crypto companies are tapping the world of sports to lift their profile. Sam Bankman-Fried's exchange FTX snapped up naming rights for the Miami Heat's stadium in a $135 million deal, and bought an ad for the 2022 Super Bowl, in an aggressive marketing campaign.
"Sports fans are 2x more likely to know about crypto than nonsports fans," FTX CEO Bankman-Fried has said. "Avid sports fans are nearly 3x as likely."