The St. Petersburg Bowl switched sponsors before the 2015 season. BitPay, which processes Bitcoin payments, took over naming rights from Beef O Brady's restaurants and renamed it \"The Bitcoin Bowl.\"
The St. Petersburg Bowl switched sponsors before the 2015 season. BitPay, which processes Bitcoin payments, took over naming rights from Beef O Brady's restaurants and renamed it "The Bitcoin Bowl."
Tony Gallippi, BitPay's Executive Chairman, announced the sponsorship in June. He saw the deal as a way to push Bitcoin into the mainstream. "Our goal is to continue to move bitcoin into the mainstream and sponsoring the St. Petersburg Bowl offers us that opportunity," Gallippi said. "College football fans and the bitcoin community represent a similar target demographic – tech-savvy men between the ages of 18 and 40."
Nielsen measured 3.3 million viewers on ESPN, with 1 million in the crucial 18-48 age bracket. BitPay's ads during the game spelled out the merchant pitch: zero fees, no currency risk, instant conversion to dollars. BitPay posted the ads to its YouTube channel.
Gyft, an online gift card retailer, also advertised during the bowl. The company accepted Bitcoin alongside traditional payment methods. For the event, Gyft offered 5% cashback on Bitcoin purchases, a bump above their normal 3% reward.
ChangeTip, a Bitcoin micropayment service, trended on Twitter. Warner Bros and Andreas Antonopoulos sent Bitcoin tips to users with #BitcoinBowl posts. Registrations spiked in the hours after the broadcast, with 114 new accounts created at peak.
Bitcoin's price mimicked the viewership pattern. The currency hovered flat before the broadcast, spiked afterward, then fell back to earth. The underlying metrics moved in Bitcoin's favor. More wallets launched. Search queries for Bitcoin climbed. Network processing power grew. Transaction volumes rose. These measurements better reflect Bitcoin's health than a single day of price action.
Bitcoin reached a new level of mainstream exposure through the bowl. Expect more major sponsorships as 2015 unfolds.
