Italian soccer club AS Roma has signed a three-year partnership worth €36 million ($42 million) with blockchain fintech Zytara Labs.
- The Serie A team's famous yellow and red shirts will bear the branding of the DigitalBits blockchain, whose DigitalBits Foundation is supporting the partnership.
- Zytara Labs builds products and platforms on blockchain protocols such as DigitalBits and Ethereum for the creation and sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
- Roma and Zytara Labs will use the DigitalBits blockchain to create digital player cards and other collectibles as NFTs and integrate the protocol's native token XDB as a new purchasing method.
- I Giallorossi (the Yellow and Reds) is one of the most famous teams in Italy, along with Turin-based Juventus and the two Milan clubs AC Milan and Inter Milan. In May, Roma named Jose Mourinho as its head coach.
- The partnership probably represents the most notable sponsorship deal to date between a soccer club and blockchain or crypto-centric firm.