If You Invested $1,000 In Bitcoin When NCAA Football Had A Bitcoin Bowl, Here's How Much You'd Have Now

Cryptocurrency companies have been investing in marketing with sponsorships of top social media influencers and sports teams. For example, did you know that there was an NCAA Football game referred to as the Bitcoin Bowl in 2014?

What Happened: Bitpay sponsored the St. Petersburg Bowl that was played on Dec. 26, 2014. With the sponsorship, the game became known as the Bitcoin Bowl by many media outlets, marking a big moment for Bitcoin BTC/USD.

The sponsorship came after Beef O’Brady’s ended a four-year run of naming rights for the game played in St. Petersburg, Florida at Tropicana Field.

North Carolina State defeated the University of Central Florida 34-27 in the game, which aired on ESPN, a unit of Walt Disney Co DIS.

The Bitpay sponsorship lasted only one game, despite signing for multiple years. The game has since moved to Tampa Bay at the Raymond James Stadium and is now known as the Gasparilla Bowl, in honor of a mythical pirate from the Tampa area.

Despite only lasting one year, the Bitcoin community rallied behind it and was proud to see a big event embrace the name.

Since then, stadiums have locked in naming rights deals with cryptocurrency firms and there have been specific coins as the sponsors of Nascar vehicles.

Related Link: SEC Regulations And The Cryptocurrency Market: Voyager Digital, Grayscale Bitcoin Executives Weigh In

Accepting Bitcoin: Bitpay co-founder Tony Gallippi paid for the sponsorship of the game with Bitcoin. The price was undisclosed but reports say that Beef O’Brady’s was paying $350,000 a year to ESPN, making the likely price in the $350,000 to $500,000 range.

As part of the promotion, fans could also buy their tickets and concessions using Bitcoin as well.

Investing In Bitcoin: The Bitcoin Bowl brought new eyeballs to the world of cryptocurrency and could have been a good time to invest in Bitcoin.

A $1,000 investment on Dec. 26, 2014 could have bought 3.0173 Bitcoin. That investment would be worth $152,259.32 at the time of writing based on Bitcoin trading at $50,462.11.

A $40 ticket paid for with Bitcoin at the time would be the equivalent of $6,090.78 today based on the current price of Bitcoin.

Image: Jurg Kradolfer/Dave Adamson, both via Unsplash