Watford FC to feature Doge on football shirts
Watford’s shirt sleeve sponsor for the upcoming 2021-22 season will be the meme-based cryptocurrency Dogecoin.
According to an insider at Watford FC, the deal is worth upwards of £700,000 and will exceed the £1m sponsorship deal which the Premier League club inked with its previous sleeve partners Bitcoin if the bonus conditions are met.
Dogecoin was launched as a joke currency in 2013 and is based on the popular meme of a Japanese Shiba Inu dog.
The insider at Watford FC defended the partnership with Dogecoin, which was organised by the club’s main shirt sponsor, Stake.com. They said that “Elon Musk’s involvement has turned it [Dogecoin] into a serious entity.”
Despite its ironic origins the meme-currency has been repeatedly touted by Musk on Twitter who claims that his son is a Doge ‘hodler,’ a term used to describes a toddler who holds crypto.
The source added that they are “hoping to open the club up to a new fanbase” with the release of shirts featuring Doge. They said the club has already been flooded with requests from fans “around the world” since news of the partnership broke in The Athletic.
Billy Markus, one of the software engineers behind Dogecoin, commented on the Watford deal via Twitter under the handle ‘Shibetoshi Nakamoto,’ a play on the name of the anonymous creator of Bitcoin.
He said: “new Watford FC jersey featuring Dogecoin in the Premier League is a big deal.”
Following news of the partnership on Saturday Dogecoin’s trade volume for the 24-hour period hit $5.79bn (£4.18bn) up 294 per cent compared to the previous day. Price is up 29 per cent over the past five days and has surged by 7223 per cent this year to date.