London Basketball Club Lends Support to DOGE and XRP

British basketball club, London Lions has dipped its foot into the digital currency ecosystem and has partnered with BitPay to accept digital currencies as payments for merchandise. 

Defined Support for DOGE and XRP

The partnership effectively implies the professional basketball club is now indirectly supporting the acceptance of top digital currencies including dog-themed memecoin, Dogecoin (DOGE) and XRP in a rare move to bridge the gap between crypto and the sporting world.

Last-minute Father's Day shopping? 🦁
Treat Dad with the roar of Lions pride. @LondonLions is bridging the gap between sports and #crypto.

From jerseys to accessories, they've got it all!
Gear up and make this Father's Day legendary. #LondonLions #FathersDay

— BitPay (@BitPay) June 16, 2023

Fans and members of the public who want to get the club’s jerseys and accessories can do so through BitPay which lends support for these digital currencies. Besides Dogecoin and XRP, other digital currencies hosted on BitPay are also featured with Shiba Inu (SHIB), Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) also featuring.

BitPay as one of the mainstream crypto payment platforms in the Web3.0 world is playing an important role in bridging the gap between mainstream firms and the digital currency ecosystem. As reported by CoinGape last year, BitPay helped Spanish Airlines to accept cryptocurrencies for tickets from customers.

The payment service provider has helped boost the interest of more firms through related partnerships in the past few years, and its efforts has helped transform memecoins like Dogecoin from a mere fun token to one with deep utility.

Intersection of Sports and Crypto

While the London Lions basketball club partnership with BitPay is renowned, it cannot be tagged the first of such deals between a sports club and the crypto world. Dallas Mavericks, the NBA team owned by billionaire investor and crypto advocate Mark Cuban became the first basketball club to accept DOGE as payment for its merchandise as far back as 2021.

London Lions joining the list is evident that the perception about the nascent asset class as a key technological resource to boost blockchain adoption is not waning. While the deal between crypto and the sports industry saw a setback with the fall of industry giants like FTX Derivatives Exchange, the renewed trend has proven to be promising.

Effectively, the London Lions move to support Dogecoin and XRP amongst others can set a new trend for other firms to follow.