Crypto Sports Brand WAGMI United Has Acquired Crawley Town Football Club
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Crypto Sports Brand WAGMI United Has Acquired Crawley Town Football Club
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Hey Friends,
This morning, we have some breaking news: WAGMI United, a new brand at the intersection of crypto and sports, has officially announced its acquisition of Crawley Town Football Club.
Crawley Town FC currently competes in EFL League Two—the fourth level of the English football pyramid—and WAGMI United plans to involve “the global Web3 community” by bringing “a digital-first, community-powered approach” to the club.
The press release reads:
“WAGMI United — which stands for “We’re All Gonna Make It,” a popular mantra of hope and solidarity in the cryptocurrency and NFT communities — is a new brand dedicated to bringing Web3’s most innovative ideas and passionate communities to the world of sports.”
“Founded by Preston Johnson and Eben Smith, WAGMI United seeks to reimagine how professional sports teams are owned and operated — building communities of passionate fans and empowering them to take a personal stake in telling their team’s story and shaping its future. WAGMI United has taken the first step on this journey with its pioneering purchase of Crawley Town Football Club.”
Preston Johnson, a former betting analyst at ESPN, and Eben Smith, a former derivatives trader that co-founded Digital Collectibles Agency, will spearhead the project and serve as club directors.
Crawley Town Football Club is currently 13th in the 24-team fourth tier.
And WAGMI United co-founder Preston Johnson says:
“Crawley Town Football Club is a club with more than 125 years of rich history that we revere and respect. However, a conventional approach to ownership hasn’t worked, and the club is losing hundreds of thousands of pounds while its fans suffer through year after year of uninspiring results on the pitch.”
“We think the club can do better and our fans deserve better. Sports are supposed to be fun and bring communities together. At Crawley Town, we’re going to shake up the status quo, try out some new ideas, and build a worldwide community of fans new and old that can be excited to cheer on the Red Devils together — stretching from West Sussex to anywhere in the world with an internet connection.”
For context, Crawley Town plays its matches at The People's Pension Stadium in Crawley, England, which is about an hour South of London via train.
The TLDR on this is actually pretty simple. Preston and Eben believe that sports are one of the most powerful community-based assets in the world. I think most of us probably agree with that. But they also think there is a significant opportunity to expand and strengthen that community via new digital asset protocols.
So they raised money from investors, including a few institutional investment firms, Gary Vaynerchuk, Daryl Morey, myself, and many others that also believe in that mission and want to prove it in real-time with a high-stakes, large-scale, tangible sports asset.
Now, contrary to popular belief, I’m not an idiot. I know some people will think this is a fantastic idea, and many others will think it’s a terrible idea. I get it, and if there is one thing I know for sure, it’s that English people don’t mess around when it comes to their club. Still, I think that there are probably a few points worth clarifying.
Crawley Town FC is not a Premier League club. They average slightly over 2,000 fans at each home match. They don’t have the equipment, facilities, or financing they need to compete at a high level. The club is currently losing hundreds of thousands of pounds each year. And if they continue to operate in this capacity, Crawley Town has essentially zero chance of ever making it to England’s top league.
But WAGMI United is going to try and change that.
The goal is simple — utilize the power of NFTs and other web3 protocols to knock down geographic boundaries and attract an influx of new supporters to Crawley Town FC. This will create new partnership opportunities, open new revenue streams, and significantly improve the club’s financing. Which, in turn, should offer a significant competitive advantage vs. their competition on the pitch.
“WAGMI United believes this community-powered approach will also open doors to exciting new partnership opportunities and unlock valuable new revenue streams that will allow us to expand Crawley Town’s budget far beyond levels typically seen by an EFL club of this size. With more financial resources than our competitors to bring in the best possible players and coaches and ensure they have access to the most advanced analytics available, these investments should translate into what matters most: wins.”
In simple terms, WAGMI United wants to flip the traditional ownership model by expanding Crawley Town’s local fan base to “anyone with an internet connection.”
And although the Crawley Town ownership structure will not be a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), at least not yet, Preston and Eben are so committed to community-based transparency and accountability that they have made an unprecedented commitment to Crawley Town FC supporters:
The goal is to earn League One promotion by the end of WAGMI United’s second season in charge. But if Preston & Eben fail to accomplish that as club directors, they will hold a vote that allows Crawley Town fans to decide whether or not to fire them.
Here’s how WAGMI United co-founder Eben Smith framed it:
"If we're trying to build a community-club, and we are, then we have to build in mechanisms to hold ourselves accountable. So if Crawley Town Football Club doesn't get promoted to League One by the end of our second season, which we think is about 50/50, then we under-performed.”
“If we underperform, Crawley Town fans should get to vote on who the next directors of the club are. We might run for reelection because it was clearly all Preston's fault, but we don’t just get to hold the fanbase hostage because our dad invented Cablevision."
I mean, not only is that an excellent James Dolan reference for the non-NBA fans out there, but it also feels like a pretty compelling stipulation for Crawley Town fans.
This is going to take some time to play out. I’m sure people will have their opinions — the media isn’t always kind! But I think Preston and Eben are in this for the right reasons and that they genuinely want to explore new ownership models that benefit both local and international supporters.
Still, I’m sure you guys have many questions — how much did WAGMI United pay for the club? What do current club finances look like? Who will run day-to-day operations? How quickly do they want to go from zero to one? What’s the plan to improve on the pitch? And what are the actual chances of getting promoted?
So I sat down and recorded a podcast with newly minted club directors Preston Johnson and Eben Smith. We talked through a bunch of the details, and my hope is that it’s helpful to detail some of the nuances in a longer-form conversation. Enjoy!
I hope everyone has a great day. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
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Huddle Up is a daily letter that breaks down the business and money behind sports.
Join more than 55,000 professional athletes, business executives, and casual sports fans that receive it directly in their inbox each morning — it’s free.