Gunning for success: CashBet discusses its sponsorship deal with Arsenal

The cryptocurrency phenomenon, led by hype surrounding bitcoin and its spectacular rise and fall in value in late 2017 and early 2018, brought the digital asset and alternate coins – or altcoins – to full mainstream attention. These days, some 1,400 crytocurrencies exist and are invariably used in tandem with blockchain technology (a decentralised public ledger) to allow for speedier payment methods, among other benefits.

This is a particularly attractive proposition, albeit a largely unregulated one, for both operators and bettors. American gaming company CashBet has successfully launched its own cryptocurrency in CashBet Coin, and the firm recently partnered with Arsenal FC to promote the token’s initial coin offering (ICO). EGR Intel sits down with CashBet CEO Mike Reaves to discover more about the future of cryptocurrency sponsorships and the potential legalisation of US sports betting.

EGR Intel: Can you tell us about the history of CashBet?

Mike Reaves (MR): I founded CashBet in 2012 with the founding vision to provide a mobile-first platform for the integration of gaming content because, at the time, online gaming was flash-based and desktop-based. We wanted to provide a platform for acquisition on [a mobile] device, to make that experience smoother, easier and more cost-effective.

We launched CashBet hoping to solve some of the issues we see facing the gambling industry – things like speed of a pay-out. With cryptocurrency, we can essentially pay customers immediately and the cost of that transaction doesn’t involve any of the banking middle-men costs that you see with more traditional payment methods.

Those costs are eliminated or greatly reduced. You can’t even do that with bitcoin, for example, because the speed of a bitcoin transaction is very slow. Fast-forward five years and CashBet is a venture-backed, profitable company with 30-odd employees all based in the San Francisco Bay area, with another 12 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

EGR Intel: How does the Arsenal partnership benefit the CashBet Coin brand?

MR: The CashBet Coin ICO was kicked off back in January with a public presale, and at that point we announced our partnership with Arsenal. We are the first cryptocurrency company to sponsor a major sports team and Arsenal is the first to have a major crypto partner, so that was very exciting for us. We think there is a real natural overlap between crypto gambling and sports as the audiences overlap.

We primarily did it for ICO awareness and brand building. Arsenal are a great partner because they’ve got 115 million Facebook followers and 13 million Twitter followers, so we are reaching hundreds of millions of people worldwide via their social media channels and we have also got a five-minute LED display per game around the pitch, so you can see the CashBet Coin animated logo when you’re watching the game on TV. The after-effect is that on our B2C casinos we have seen an increase in players that I can only attribute to the Arsenal deal, so we are really pleased with them as a partner.

EGR Intel: Why did CashBet choose Arsenal?

MR: We reached out to NFL teams and talked to a number of Premier League teams, Formula 1 teams, heavyweight fighters and MMA stars. We’ve talked to a whole bunch of sports teams, but we found Arsenal were different as they were willing to put the words ‘blockchain’ and ‘cryptocurrencies’ in the sponsorship package. Nobody else was willing to do that.

Everybody else wanted to dip their toe in the water and were happy to take our money but didn’t want to use those words because the crypto industry is in its infancy. What you see right now with the price of bitcoin is based on speculation, and most of these big brands are very conservative. They are worried about their own brand image and want to ensure they are partnered with a reputable company. Arsenal did their due diligence, and in us they found a company that has been around for five years. We play by the rules and we have other gambling licences in place. We have never been sanctioned and our players love us, so they went ahead and dived right in.

EGR Marketing: Are cryptocurrency partnerships going to become common place in football?

MR: I think that every major sports team will have a crypto sponsorship [deal] at some point. We are seeing some really interesting movement in the industry. Daily fantasy sports operator FanDuel did its Bitcoin Bowl [prizes awarded in bitcoin] back in December, and it was one of their most successful promotions in history. It is rapidly becoming a legitimate way for sponsors to go ahead and promote their brands. It is becoming more adapted by companies and our partnership with Arsenal helps to legitimise this industry.

If you are above board, play by the rules and provide a high-class entertainment experience, then other brands will understand that – we have been approached by many teams since then and you are going to see a lot more outreach, so these trends will continue in the near future.

EGR Marketing: What other marketing initiatives does CashBet have in store for 2018?

MR: We are going to continue to build the brand as a premier egaming platform for real money casino, social casino and skill-based gaming. Basically, any game where deposits or payments are required, we want to get involved with. Cryptocurrencies are a natural extension to what we do, and one of the most interesting things that we have managed so far is to put together a partnership agreement with Novomatic brand Greentube, one of the largest casino companies in the world. They have agreed to take the CashBet coin as a purchase method on their GameTwist casino platform. This is an unregulated industry, so people with no licence can go ahead and utilise our token. Our initiatives in the future are to try and increase those partnerships.

EGR Marketing: What do you think will happen with the legalisation of sports betting in the US?

MR: I can speculate. I think the Supreme Court is going to come up with its decision in May. I think it will be similar to the gaming industry in the US, where in the past few years the Wire Act has been relaxed and redefined a little. The law on the books right now is a protectionist law that is going to have to be revised, and I believe the Supreme Court is going to come down with a decision to allow licensing to take place on a state-by-state basis, subject to state legislature approval.

The primary beneficiaries of that are going to be the Native American casinos, which have a huge interest in gaming in the US, as well as huge lobbying efforts. They will go ahead and adopt sports wagering in the land-based casinos, of which there are 550 or so now, and there will be a pretty massive adoption.

On an online basis, it will be more of a struggle as these tribes haven’t always co-operated. My view is that you’re likely to see some political infighting take place, which means that online sports betting will not roll out as quickly as people are expecting. I have been in this industry for a long time. I remember trying to get poker into the US in 2009. We have a joke in the industry: ‘For the past 10 years, online poker has been 18 months away’. I think it will be a similar thing in online sports wagering.