Inside The First Decentralized Athlete Sponsorship

👋 Welcome back to Sponcon Sports, a weekly newsletter dedicated to sponsored content strategy in the sports industry!

As Unrivaled Basketball tipped off its inaugural season last weekend, I kept a close eye on the sponsored content at both the league and team levels.

The standout? Sephora Tunnel Walks. Player arrival content is practically a staple in sports sponsorships these days, but this execution was top-notch.

The Sephora logo printed directly onto the carpet was a clean and seamless integration—no clunky logo overlays. Since the entire league operates out of one venue, the activation showed up consistently across all team accounts. The league and teams also did a great job mentioning Sephora in the copy of their posts, giving the brand extra exposure. Plus, these moments weren’t just a one-and-done; they were reposted on game day and, on occasion, the next day for a solid engagement boost.

If I were working with SEPHORA, I’d add one more layer.

I’d secure player deals to let the brand feature tunnel walk photos on their own social channels and O&O platforms. On social, I’d link the Sephora products players used in those posts. Then, I’d collaborate with players to create Get Ready With Me videos showcasing their game-night makeup routines. That content could seamlessly integrate into a paid media strategy to drive additional revenue—and take the partnership to the next level.

In Today’s Edition:

• Decentralized Sports Sponsorship 🏎️

• Raiders’ In-Season Sponcon 🥕

• Andretti’s Cheesy Chili’s Reveal 🧀

🏊️ DEEP DIVE
How Does A Decentralized Sports Sponsorship Work?

Imagine this: a sponsorship for one of motorsport’s biggest events, decided not behind closed doors but by a community vote powered by blockchain.

That’s exactly what happened on April 9, 2024, when Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports announced Polkadot as the primary sponsor of Conor Daly's No. 24 Chevrolet for the Indianapolis 500.

This partnership wasn’t just about slapping a logo on a car—it’s a moment of real innovation. Polkadot’s community voted, with 95.8% approval, to back Daly, marking the first time blockchain technology decided a major athlete’s sponsorship.

To explore how this groundbreaking deal came together—and what it means for the future of sports sponsorships—I spoke with Andrew Stallings, Founder and President of The Athelo Group, who represents Daly.

From skepticism to success, Andrew shares the fascinating journey of bridging the worlds of Web2 and Web3, the unique challenges and opportunities of managing a sponsorship program governed by a global crypto community, as well as insights into the future of sports marketing and blockchain integration.

Note: Questions and answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

ALEX: Can you take me through how this partnership came to be?

ANDREW: Anybody that understands the business side of motorsports knows that funding plays a critical role and the Drivers are responsible for being those business liaisons to provide the proper sponsorship, unless you're in that less than 1%.

When I reflect on how all of this came together it certainly brings a smile to my face to this day.

It’s around the Christmas holiday season in 2023 and Conor sends me a text message – “Hey, I'm going to email you something. I got this DM from this Learn Polkadot guy. I don't know what it is, but it seems interesting.”

I remember getting this eight-and-a-half-page email explaining the who, what, where, when, how, and why of Polkadot — why marketing? Why motorsports? Why America? Why now?

As I begin reading this, I just get so lost in translation. Further, this was all coming from someone with a Gmail account, so I was scratching my head a bit on the validity of it all. I remember looking back at the email the day after Christmas with clear eyes and responding to the email with sort of a “why not” mentality. Maybe I will learn something I did not know, at best, but expectations were certainly tempered.

The gentleman who reached out to us was named Christopher Wade. He lives in Indianapolis proper, and he's been in the Polkadot ecosystem for several years as a passion project and as an Ambassador in North America.

I set up a call with Chris and one of his colleagues within the ecosystem, Ryan (aka “Phunky”). Ryan is incredibly brilliant and smart, and he works for one of the main businesses within the Polkadot ecosystem called “Lucky Friday Labs” which helps protocols, enterprise blockchain adopters, institutional crypto holders, and community initiatives ranging from NFTs to node infrastructure to decentralized finance.

I challenged both Chris and Ryan to really dumb the technical side down to me so that I could answer the primary question for me which was, “Where is that bridge between Web2 and Web3 (post FTX collapse, etc.), and can it ever be strengthened through B2B and consumer-facing moments?”

I have been fortunate enough to oversee a lot of different sponsorships in my career at scale and have seen the good and bad unfold. One thing that was very important for us and is always important for clients like Conor is that mutually this can make sense and be embraced. We want Polkadot holistically as a community to embrace this.

As our discussions progressed, the term that kept coming up was decentralized, and I'm like, okay, decentralized what? What are you talking about? There's no CMO approving this? There's no brand marketing manager? There's no board? Who the hell is approving this? And they're like, well, we should get you educated on what OpenGov is.

In Polkadot, "OpenGov" refers to the decentralized governance system that allows DOT token holders to directly participate in making decisions about the network, essentially giving the community full control over the platform through voting on proposals and referenda, with no central authority managing the process; it's considered a key feature of Polkadot's design for transparency and community-driven decision-making.

In addition to OpenGov deciding decisions about the network it also dictates how the treasury funds are spent. OpenGov puts control of the network into the hands of the 1.3M DAO members holding DOT today, making it the largest and most decentralized decision-making group in the world.

The most critical part of the OpenGov process is engaging with the community and making a genuine effort to understand all the different parts of the ecosystem that people are working on. I humbly believe/hope that our true difference maker was Conor’s ability to be on every call, text message group, and email chain that he could to listen and take it all in. Not often do you see the professional athlete having a seat at the table, and so consistently. Conor does a remarkable job at that, and his genuine approach helped win over a lot of the original skeptics out of the gate.

There were several pieces that played into this proposal getting passed this last year, but I think the community was excited for change and to see first-hand what the brand’s slogan could activate against which is to “Defy What’s Possible”.

ALEX: What’s the difference between working with a corporate marketing team and this community? What are the pros and cons of this type of partnership?

ANDREW: Personalities play a big role.

I've had some, let’s call them “fun”, exchanges with members of the community who point at our program for the token not performing to phenomenal standards within the market. But then there are other people who’ve really embraced us, saying the effort just means so much because you're not showing up and talking down to us; you're asking for more information, feedback, and opinions with the hope to improve.

Cultural adaptation of where Polkadot is and should be going is an ongoing debate.

One thing that is consistent is everyone within the eco-system believes that Polkadot’s technology is the best within its class. The capabilities are vast, but the UI can be challenging even to the most advanced technology mind. So as much as we talk about the bridge from an external side of Web2 to Web3 there are many internal bridges being built out as well and played in large part by the different DAO’s and communities within the eco-system.

Building cohesiveness has been a big focus for us within this next proposal that we are currently vetting for 2025. While we know that the United States is going to be making some big tailwinds within the cryptocurrency and Web3 worlds, we can’t forget the global opportunities that have served the Polkadot ecosystem so well previously and we need to allow our program to showcase those different subject matter experts within the ecosystem to shine on a new platform and build meaningful business through these opportunities as well.

ALEX: It’s not all that much different than normal, just more voices and people. It's kind of like doing it at scale, essentially?

ANDREW: Correct, but I believe in a traditional business setting you know who the decision makers are by title and who carries the most weight within this decision-making process. Through the OpenGov process, you must see everyone as equals.

Sure – some DAO’s, companies, and individuals have more weight in their voting power than others but you risk a lot by only focusing on the heavy hitters. If you take a look at my X account in the last few months I have spent just as much time engaging in discussions with people who are against this program (and all sports sponsorships for that matter) to help them understand and welcome them to a race to explore everything first hand.

For all I know, they may not even vote in OpenGov. Doesn’t matter in the end.

ALEX: Because the community must pledge the dollars upfront, does that mean you get paid quicker compared to other companies?

ANDREW: Yes and no.

Through the OpenGov process, there are several ways you can request funding for your program. All of which are in native tokens to the community that carry a specific USD value on certain markets like Coinbase, Kraken, etc.

Last year, all of our funding was requested up front in $DOT and the volatility of that would probably make the traditional business or marketing person poop their pants since you are requesting the amount of tokens based on a certain average of previous days but as we all know, crypto can turn at a moments notice both for the good and bad so there is immense risk if you are requesting $2M of $DOT at the 30-day market price of $7 per token and then by the time your proposal gets approved, it drops down to $4.50.

We have seen many programs struggle with this in OpenGov and that’s why proper budgeting is crucial but also recognizing the opportunities to request more secure tokens like stable coins (USDC + USDT) offer less volatility as well.

ALEX: In year one, what were the goals set by the partnership? And how did the activation perform against those goals?

ANDREW: This has been a key discussion point in our current proposal and we are looking at our program through the age-old lens of “crawl, walk, and run” with year 1 being our “crawl” phase.

When we first built this program out it was obvious that the main excitement and buzz was to get people to understand what Polkadot is. In short, it was a brand awareness play. We needed people in North America to know: what is Polkadot?

The plan was to leverage big, flashy moments as well as social media content and word-of-mouth opportunities to build awareness.

With that, we worked to deliver measurable results in a recap deck, showing billions of media impressions, dedicated media hits, TV time, and viewership. What is always hard to measure is how much the seed that you planted has grown. You must keep tending to it to flourish.

This next phase (“walk” as we so label it) is about enhancing the questioning net and to begin showing people in the simplest form both at track, on social, and beyond. Further, we have worked tirelessly to engage both our firm’s network and Conor’s to bring true b2b opportunities to the Polkadot ecosystem. One company is far down the line with building out a large project that could bring monumental impact to the ecosystem across the board. More to come on that soon though.

ALEX: So, while you drove a lot of earned media with the first athlete sponsorship in a decentralized environment, year two is highly focused on technology adoption, correct?

ANDREW: Without question and putting processes in place.

Our new president has put his flag in the ground that cryptocurrency will be a big focus, at least in the first quarter or two of his term. We obviously want North America to be a focus for this 2025 effort but to go back to a point I originally made is that we want to build the bridges into North America so that our global leaders within the eco-system can have a presence here and drive more opportunity.

One of Polkadot’s primary tech roles is connecting different networks and parachains in a best-in-class fashion.

The same way that Polkadot connects to others in the technical world is where we will deliver the same with consumers and enterprise business leaders alike.

Many people label our program simply as “marketing” and try to keep it in its own box but motorsports sponsorship is one of the most impactful omni-channel marketing avenues in the world when executed correctly.

This quote may come back to bite me in nine months, but I don't want to go back to OpenGov if I don't have to.

With the right process and structure in place, we can deliver and be a great case study —not only for motorsports, but for all sports sponsorships, with how this model can be recalibrated for all leagues, properties, and teams and further build trust in web3 partnerships for the foreseeable future as a longstanding opportunity.

ALEX: Any advice for someone who represents athletes or rights holders who want to explore this type of partnership?

ANDREW: For every Polkadot, there are 50 competitors. For example, a quick look at Coin Market Cap can show the range of those different competitors across the board. Some have similar interests that are more aligned to one another while others may generate different service offerings that position them differently.

Some of these organizations are backed by traditional boards and foundations that are not decentralized so for those looking to pitch new opportunities in sports sponsorships this may seem less volatile and compelling.

The good news is that the resurgence of this category is becoming increasingly prominent and I would bet that we will see it resurface as a top three category spend for leagues, teams, and athletes alike by the end of 2025.

Becoming familiar with market trends and behavior is critical for timing of these sorts of proposals as well. If the markets are crashing then you may not want to just show up with an opportunity with a lot of zeros on it unless the immediate return 10x’s that.

Do your homework to understand the company and the intricacies of the technology. You do not need to be the smartest person in the room but curiosity and showcasing ways to solve problems puts you in a great position to succeed whether it is in this category or beyond.

ALEX: On the flip side, any advice for these companies x communities that want to get into sports sponsorship?

ANDREW: Start with “why” and address current problems within the business.

Seems simple enough but we see far too often when companies are sitting on tons of liquid that they are looking to deploy and then they just go dump it on a non-strategic sports sponsorship initiative with little to no measurable return.

Understanding how these kinds of sponsorships can begin to solve problems and open doors to more solutions is the baseline of what should be explored.

Also, leave the ego at the door. Goes to both sides. I have had A LOT of conversations in this last year and the best ones are humble enough to show up to the table curious and confident. It really goes a long way to be comfortable in the exploratory phase mutually.

ALEX: How has this partnership impacted you and your view of sports sponsorship and partnerships?

ANDREW: Years ago, I thought Web3 and crypto were a total joke. Then again, I am also the guy who was raised in southeast Virginia just down the road from Langley Speedway and thought professional racing was just the same. Just because you do not understand something doesn’t mean you cannot find the way that you can bring value and vice versa.

This has been an intellectually stimulating last 13 months for me professionally. Working on this program and getting to understand so much about the possibilities has helped me engage with my professional network better while also challenging current clients in other sectors about their tech use cases.

In my own opinion, Individuals who can show up bringing a new way of thinking to a conversation are playing the long game and find success in so many different forms.

All of the information can be very overwhelming at times, but Polkadot has a lot of solid entry methods from an educational perspective to make it easier that I personally am taking part in such as the Polkadot Blockchain Academy (PBA-X) program and becoming an active member with the team at EasyA and their Hackathon events which are some of the best in the world.

It’s easy for someone like me or my client (Conor) to show up with our hand out but we have really taken to the opportunities that can come from the Polkadot community and look forward to unpacking those through this program and many sub-programs x projects that will develop from this.

🔍️ SPONCONSPIRATION
Steal These Ideas

[Social Value: $7,676] Mark down the Las Vegas Raiders’ “Season’s Best presented by Melissa’s” as another clever sponsored content name you need to save. While this version highlights the best regular season stats, the concept could easily scale into a larger platform. Think season superlatives (Part 1 + Part 2), Top Plays of the Month (e.g., Season’s Best of November), and those team and player highlight reels you see on YouTube during the offseason.

[Social Value: $463,840] There’s a reason Nikolai Savic (@nikolaisavic) calls himself the CEO of Transitions. His collab with Man City to celebrate Erling Haaland’s contract extension absolutely lives up to the hype.

[Social Value: $19,547] Ahead of the Stadium Series matchup between the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Detroit Red Wings at Ohio Stadium—home of the National Champion Ohio State Buckeyes—Fanatics and the NHL pulled a fast one on Michigan alumni. Instead of special event jerseys, they pranked them with Buckeyes jerseys.

[Social Value: $9,704] If you’ve got a jersey patch partner, having them sponsor your uniform reveals is a no-brainer. The Chicago Cubs nailed this with Motorola during their Blues Alternate debut.

[Social Value: $1,067] The Golden State Warriors were smart to use the Chase Center social account to promote Hello Kitty Night. It’s also a great reminder to dig those bobbleheads out of storage and put them to good use.

[Social Value: $1,345] Simple. Effective. The Andretti IndyCar team hit the mark with this Chili’s partnership announcement.

[Social Value: $4,927] Sure, reviewing plays on a Lenovo tablet isn’t groundbreaking, BUT the Dallas Cowboys content team made it feel fresh. Their social-native approach gave me major Amalfi Jets vibes.

[Social Value: $2,450] Speaking of smooth product integrations, New Era Cap got some serious shine in this edition of the Seattle Seahawks’ Sideline Connections series featuring cinematographer Erika Wutherich.

*social values via Zoomph

🚨 ICYMI
What To Watch For

Moda Center Accessibility: The Portland Trailblazers, in partnership with Ticketmaster and OneCourt Technologies, are the first pro sports team and arena to offer OneCourt’s haptic display at every home game. This innovative tech allows Blind or Low Vision fans to experience live basketball action in real time—at no extra cost.

Instagram Updates: You can now upload Reels up to three minutes long. Make sure to check out Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri’s account. He shared how to rank in 2025 as well as best practices for Reels.

Missing Millions Uncovered: Shripal Shah delivers another fantastic piece in John WallStreet, breaking down how sports organizations are missing out on millions in revenue by failing to unify fan data and embrace AI-driven loyalty programs.

Commercial Slam Success: Matthew Hughes explores the Australian Open’s humble beginnings and its rise to become a global commercial powerhouse [via Notice].

B/R Meets NFL: I’m excited to see how the new Bleacher Report and NFL content partnership unfolds. The B/R universe has crushed it with the NBA, and I can’t wait to see what they bring to football.

NHL Data Visualization: Ever since Adam Mosseri recommended @_SportsBall in September, I’ve been seeing collabs with Riley Martin’s account everywhere. This latest partnership with the NHL and AWS highlighting NHL Edge IQ is awesome.