Cristiano Ronaldo Inks Partnership with Binance for a Series of NFT Collections

Professional football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is the latest athlete to enter the NFT industry. The move became apparent after Ronaldo inked a multi-year joint marketing agreement with major crypto exchange Binance. Under the partnership, Binance will collaborate with Ronaldo to produce and promote a series of NFT collections. The company has already planned to release the first collection later this year. All collections will be exclusively traded on the crypto firm’s platform.

“Proud to be partnering with @binance Together we’ll give you the opportunity to own an iconic piece of sports history. I’m excited to take this journey with all of you. Let’s change the NFT game with #Binance,” Ronaldo tweeted on his account on Thursday. “My relationship with the fans is very important to me, so the idea of bringing unprecedented experiences and access through this NFT platform is something that I wanted to be a part of,” added the football icon in a separate statement.

Ronaldo proves to be a significant partner for Binance, being the most followed personality on Instagram. He currently has over 459 million followers. The majority of the footballer’s fans received the announcement positively. However, others have pointed out that the coming NFTs could be nothing more than “worthless crap.”

Binance’s recent partnership comes just weeks after the firm revealed that it will also be sponsoring prominent artist The Weeknd’s world tour. The crypto exchange will release an NFT collection in line with the After Hours ‘Til Dawn concert tour beginning in July. Additionally, it will donate $2 million to the  XO Humanitarian Fund formed by the Weeknd as a United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Global Goodwill Ambassador. Part of the deal also promises that 5% of NFT sales from the collection will go to the fund as well.

Binance continues to make significant agreements with famous personalities despite passing up on other large opportunities such as Super Bowl ads and stadium naming rights. These developments have allowed the company to continue opening positions for professionals amidst the current crypto bear market and corporate cutbacks at other crypto companies.

Sources: Decrypt, Reuters