Peter McCormack is known as a podcaster in crypto circles, but in his hometown, he now runs a football club that’s relying on Bitcoin to make its foray into the English Premier League.Real Bedford FC has attracted investment from the Winklevoss twins and sponsorships from Gemini, Luxor, Ledger, and other leading crypto companies.
When Ryan Reynolds bought the Welsh football club Wrexham F.C. in 2020, its fortunes changed, and so did its performances on the pitch as it strived to join the competitive English Premier League. 250 kilometers away, the “Budget Ryan Reynolds” is doing the same with his neighborhood football club, but unlike the Hollywood superstar, he relies on Bitcoin to fund the club’s ambitions.
Peter McCormack is known in the crypto world as the podcaster behind ‘Mr Obnoxious,’ formerly titled ‘What Bitcoin Did,’ which gets over a million downloads every month. However, in April 2022, he bought Bedford FC, his local football club in the Eastern England county of Bedfordshire, which he renamed Real Bedford FC.
Since then, he has been on a journey towards transforming Real Bedford into a Bitcoin club. In an interview with Sky News, he revealed that one of the key appeals of his Bitcoinisation is that it allowed the club to get sponsors and fans beyond the local area. Today, its sponsors include Bitcoin mining firms Luxor and Iris Energy, crypto investment giant Galaxy, American exchange Gemini, and French crypto hardware wallet maker Ledger.
The Football Club That’s Become a Bitcoin Hub
In England, Bitcoin has become very popular. The country is one of the largest crypto markets in Europe and consistently ranks in the top five for trading volume. However, it has also witnessed a crackdown on crypto, from restrictions on crypto ads to the FCA’s consistent clampdown on crypto firms.
McCormack seeks to ensure that Real Bedford isn’t regarded as a Bitcoin company to protect it from any backlash that might emanate from negative crypto events. On his website, he even has a section titled, “Why you shouldn’t buy Bitcoin.”
In football, everyone is like, ‘ You’re just trying to make people buy Bitcoin.’ I’m not.
However, the club promotes Bitcoin in several ways. For one, you can pay for drinks and food in the bar with BTC; you can also shop for merchandise both online and at the club shop in the digital currency. The BTC collected this way goes into the ‘Bitcoin treasury,’ which the club treats as a savings account.
Success for the club seems to be just a matter of time. Last season, the club won its league and gained promotion to the Southern League Division One Central, the eighth tier of English football. McCormack’s sights are firmly set on advancing through the tiers to the Premier League, the world’s most-watched football league.
BTC trades at $67,200, dipping 2% for the day after it was unable to sustain a weekend rally that took it to $69,400, its highest price since early June.
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