The LIV-PGA Tour match simply landed a wonderfully becoming sponsor

The Showdown — a made-for-TV golf match pitting two PGA Tour stars in opposition to two LIV stars — enters the golf market with as many questions as solutions.

We all know solely a bit of about who’s operating the present. We’re nonetheless questioning how the association all works. There appears to be a lot of cash behind it, coming from principally unknown sources. And a small subsection of super-engaged social-media customers appears downright euphoric about its existence.

Star energy? Turbulent previous? Unsure future? Excessive upside — and excessive threat? The Showdown is the proper match for its title sponsor, introduced Tuesday in a glitzy press launch: Crypto.com.

Sure, the information is true, the match pitting Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler in opposition to Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka will likely be known as the Crypto.com Showdown, and winners of the occasion will likely be paid out … in Cronos, the official cryptocurrency of Crypto.com.

“Crypto.com’s mission is to speed up the world’s transition to cryptocurrency and in the present day’s announcement is our newest effort by introducing the world’s first main golf event with a handbag in CRO cryptocurrency,” Crypto.com CEO Kris Marzalek stated in a launch asserting the information. “That is testomony to our confidence in the way forward for the U.S. crypto market and the ability of sports activities to deliver followers to essentially the most licensed crypto platform on this planet – Crypto.com.”

The information tells us a bit of bit extra concerning the state of The Showdown, scheduled at Shadow Creek Golf Membership in Las Vegas for December 17. The occasion is not going to simply present look charges for all 4 golfers concerned — rumored to be within the neighborhood of $4 million every — however it’ll additionally pay a “multimillion-dollar” prize to the winner in cryptocurrency. When McIlroy and DeChambeau first offered the occasion, they did in order a present again to followers beleaguered by golf’s incessant money craze — however it’s clear the contestants are gathering on a number of fronts. In golf’s period of fabulous wealth, 4 of essentially the most related gamers alive don’t join a contest for the goodness of the sport alone.

The cash will come from sponsors like Crypto.com in addition to promoting income for the printed on Turner Sports activities, which is able to carry the occasion in the US. Trevor Immelman, David Feherty and Charles Barkley are amongst these anticipated to be a part of the TV crew for the occasion. That crew has labored on earlier broadcasts for The Match, which was a unique entity however has additionally been held on Turner’s household of broadcast networks.

The Match creator Bryan Zuriff and EverWonder Studio are The Showdown’s organizers. Zuriff, a longtime good friend of Phil Mickelson’s and the creator of the famed tv sequence Ray Donovan, has resuscitated the made-for-TV match format in a couple of totally different iterations during the last decade. EverWonder, led by former CNN chief Jeff Zucker and backed by the non-public fairness agency RedBird Capital, has quietly exerted a rising affect on the sports activities leisure world within the final 18 months. As just lately as this fall, Redbird backed David Ellison’s $2 billion acquisition of Paramount, house owners of CBS Sports activities, and introduced a $3.7 billion warfare chest for investments in sports activities, leisure and monetary providers.

As for the title sponsor? Crypto.com is having fun with a renaissance of its personal within the dwindling months of 2024, the most recent upswing in a turbulent half-decade for the existence of cryptocurrency extra broadly. After explosive development in the course of the first crypto wave in 2020 fueled lavish advertising and marketing budgets for lots of the largest exchanges, Crypto.com suffered massive losses in 2022 when a number of high-profile cryptocurrency scandals rocked investor confidence. As just lately as final yr, Crypto.com seemed to be in retreat, asserting it might shutter its U.S.-based institutional operations attributable to restricted demand.

However the U.S. election despatched cryptocurrency markets right into a tizzy earlier in November, when a second Trump administration signaled openness to decentralized currencies. Crypto.com, which maintained its consumer-facing companies within the U.S., was a selected beneficiary of the bump. Its Cronos coin skyrocketed to its highest worth in additional than two years within the days following the election, the most important swing for the reason that coin misplaced greater than $1 billion in a single day in the course of the collapse of the crypto markets in 2022. With its sponsorship of The Showdown, Crypto.com seems to be attempting to capitalize on a second period of fine instances within the cryptocurrency enterprise.

Will it discover a sympathetic viewers within the golf world, the place cryptocurrencies have largely prevented spending within the final a number of years? It’s exhausting to say. (Cryptocurrencies have largely focused their advertising and marketing efforts in direction of youthful buyers with campaigns in sports activities just like the NBA and NFL.)

However given golf’s present state of turbulence, it’s exhausting to fathom a extra good companion for Crypto.com than The Showdown.