The deal to purchase Hull City AFC with crypto has hit a dead end. This is after SportyCo, a blockchain firm investing in sports and which is involved in the purchase, failed to convince investors.

According to sources with knowledge of the deal, SportyCo’s investors were concerned that the purchase price was inflated since it was “higher than the real market valuation.” This was after SportyCo’s MD, Marko Filej met with Hull City AFC’s owners.

Rumors about the possible purchase of Hull City AFC with crypto started making rounds last year with the bid price set at approximately 58 million U.S dollars.

At the time, Geoff Bielby, the chairman of Hull City Supporters Trust (HCST) which represented the football club in the deal, said:

[Our involvement] in the bid to buy Hull City AFC, led by SportyCo, has been misunderstood by some journalists. We are not leading the bid, we’re simply a partner representing supporters. The concept wasn’t to involve [cryptocurrency] but SportyCo did lead the bid with the intention of following up the traditional investor led bid with crowdfunding using [the blockchain-based] SportyCo platform.

Recently virtual currencies are finding their way into the football pitch. For example, a few days ago, Justin Sun, Tron’s founder, took to Twitter to announce a possible partnership with Liverpool, a leading football club in the English Premiership. Unfortunately, Liverpool disputed any such plans.

Additionally, another football club in the English Premiership, West Ham United, has cemented a deal with Socios.com, a blockchain-focused platform, with the aim of creating a virtual token that can be used by the club’s supporters for voting purposes.

The deal to purchase Hull City AFC with crypto may have disintegrated due to the presence of Alexander Jarvis who “brought in most of the funds” to SportyCo. An investigation by the New York Times noted that Jarvis “has a history of exaggerating and overstating his investor connections, most of which he claims are based in China.”

Alexander, however, reached out to us stating the above claims were false with the comment that “He [Jarvis] did actually close 3 deals last year representing 30% of the market over last 14 months”

Cryptoline News can, nevertheless, not independently verify the comment from Jarvis.

Will crypto investments in the sports industry receive widespread adoption?

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