The Australia Football League (AFL) has reportedly forged an alliance with Crypto.com to support its women’s league (AFLW), marking the first significant crypto sports sponsorship in the region. 

Specifically, the deal – with an overall value of around $25 million and will run for the next half-decade – is reportedly a marked increase from the AFL’s current $18.5 million sponsorship contract with Toyota. 

The newly formed alliance will reportedly also mark the first occurrence of Crypto.com – a major crypto exchange from Singapore offering digital wallets and crypto-backed debit cards – providing sponsorship to an Australian sports team.

It will also be the entity’s first sponsorship for an elite women’s sports competition in the world, a milestone that AFL Executive General Manager Customer and Commercial Kylie Rogers shared that she is proud to be included. 

“The AFL is proud to be the first Australian sports league and elite women’s competition globally to work alongside an organization that shares our passion to progress the future of elite sport and technology.” 

Crypto.com general manager Asia & Pacific Karl Mohan further revealed that the firm saw the attraction lying within Australia’s relatively high number of women showing interest in crypto, with over fifty percent (53%) of crypto investors were females, per insights revealed in the firm’s most recent consumer research in Australia. 

“It is very encouraging to see that Australians from all walks of life, irrespective of gender or background, are very keen to adopt cryptocurrencies, and we’re excited about being their go-to platform.”

In August 2021, CNBC reportedly introduced a survey finding out that women are still less than half as likely to invest in cryptocurrencies than men, with 16% of men investing vs 7% of women.