Crypto firm endorsed by Rangers, Hibs and Premier League stars ceases trading

An NFT and cryptocurrency company that had sponsorship deals with Rangers and Hibernian and was endorsed by three top Premier League players has ceased trading tokens after their value crashed.

Scotland and Liverpool’s Andy Robertson, Manchester United player Luke Shaw and Chelsea’s Callum Hudson-Odoi promoted Sportemon Go products on their social media accounts.

Sportemon Go has appeared on the shirts of Rangers since last October, getting prominent billing in the club’s thrilling run to the Europa League semi-finals, while its logo has also been on Hibernian’s shirts this season.

It describes itself as an “NFT-augmented reality sports trading platform” and offered SGOX tokens (a denomination of cryptocurrency).

🆕 #RangersFC are pleased to announce an exciting new official partnership with @sportemongo.

All the info 👇

— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) October 23, 2021

NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are digital assets built on blockchain technology, which also underpins cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. To their advocates, they are an exciting new form of collectibles but to detractors, they are a risky vehicle for financial speculation. Cryptocurrency is largely unregulated, meaning there is little recourse for those who could make or lose huge sums of money.

But with gambling sports sponsorship deals on the wane, crypto companies are helping to fill the gap. Many teams and leagues have deals with firms such as Socios and Sorare, and Liverpool are considering offers from the crypto sector for their next front-of-shirt deal.

On Sunday evening, the social media accounts of Sportemon Go disappeared. They then re-emerged with a message saying “the SGOX Token has ceased trading” and “the Team, Athletes and other (intellectual property) are currently being removed or deleted, as we finalise amicable termination agreements”.

The post added: “The community voted unanimously to redeem SGOX for L1TF (Liberty One Treasury Fund, another form of cryptocurrency) tokens. Also note the Team, Athletes and other IP (intellectual property) are currently being removed or deleted, as we finalise amicable termination agreements.”

The Sportemon Go digital token (SGOX) has nosedived in value, eventually flatlining in January.

The token initially saw a burst of activity in its few months after launching in July before plunging in the early autumn. Then in late October, Rangers, Robertson and Shaw all endorsed the company’s products on social media, and the token’s value surged, with nearly $600,000 (£480,000) being traded in one 24-hour period.

It is likely that fans and speculators bought up tokens hoping to cash in on their rising value due to their increased prominence. But existing holders quickly cashed out by selling the tokens to newcomers, so the token crashed again.

When Rangers announced their two-year deal in October, the club promised “innovative creative digital collectible products and fan engagement activities” in a press release quoting Sportemon Go CEO Ricky Jackson, who is a former Australian rules footballer. Sportemon said it had made “a significant commercial investment” into the club.

Excited to be partnering with one of the world’s top sports NFT producers@sportemongo to create my own line of digital collectibles!

For your chance to get your hands on one for free, simply pre-register via https://t.co/oinVunD81W #ad pic.twitter.com/Vf4OTehizT

— Luke Shaw (@LukeShaw23) October 22, 2021

Three months later, Shaw and Robertson tweeted their endorsement of the company again, and Hudson-Odoi joined in.

This was despite the fact the Sportemon Go token had tanked by this point, while the Hibs or Rangers deals had yet to produce anything of consequence to fans in terms of tokens that could be bought or sold or used to vote on “fan engagement” polls.

Both Robertson and Hudson-Odoi appeared in YouTube videos speaking about Sportemon Go. Both videos have now been removed from the platform.

In each case, the response from followers was vociferously negative to the point that Robertson ended up switching off replies after tweeting about an NFT collection.

My first #NFT collection ‘Hometown Heroes’ is now available on sporteNFT marketplace. Check out my collection https://t.co/RoN6UZ6vZx pic.twitter.com/GpuK7rV6VQ

— Andy Robertson (@andrewrobertso5) January 31, 2022

The first British club to partner up with Sportemon Go were Hibernian in September, in a deal that saw the company’s logo placed on the back of shirts for the 2021-22 season.

The press release announcing the deal said the company would put in a “six-figure sum” each season on an initial three-year term. It added: “The partnership will also bring new products and fan engagement services, opening up exciting opportunities to engage our supporter base with interactive products and with tokenised merchandise collection pre-releases coming within a matter of weeks.”

But these exciting opportunities never materialised. The HIB$ token was “soft-launched” but no Hibs NFTs were ever issued.

Hibernian commercial director Greg McEwan told The Athletic that the club went through a due diligence process before signing the deal, and stepped back from the partnership a few months ago after becoming aware of the company’s financial difficulties and “began to reduce their assets”.

“We would like to reiterate that no supporters lost out financially through the launch of the Fan Token earlier in the year. As it never properly launched, all supporters that purchased a fan token were refunded,” McEwan said.

“Knowing Sportemon Go’s difficulties, we had been planning for a mutual termination of the partnership and have a new partner in place for the upcoming season, which will be announced soon.”

Although fans may be refunded specifically for the HIB$ token that was never properly launched (i.e. you could not buy or sell it), this will not cover the firm’s other products.

The hasty demise of Sportemon Go will provide ammunition to critics of football’s deepening ties to the world of cryptocurrency and NFTs more broadly.

(Top photo: Twitter)