Polkadot will appear at the Indianapolis 500 after community members voted to select IndyCar racing star Conor Daly as brand ambassador. The year-long collaboration, which Daly's company announced at a press conference Tuesday, begins with a high-profile race scheduled for May.
The proposal to sponsor the daily passed with 95.8% approval in a community vote on the Polk Council website. The plan, which was under review from February 19 to March 14, will receive DOT 290,000, the equivalent of approximately $2.1 million, to cover $1.7 million in commercial sponsorship fees for race teams and other costs. demanded.
“The Indy 500 is iconic and the biggest spectacle in racing. If you ask any race car driver, the Indy 500 is one of the races they want to win,” said Polkadot, which led the effort. Community contributor Chris Wade said. Decryption.
“Additionally, Polkadot’s Connor sponsorship includes NASCAR trucks and nitrocross racing, and Connor’s experience spans all of them,” Wade added.
Daly raced in the Indy 500 and Daytona 500 that same year, and also competed in the F2 series in Europe.
“He's fast, he's powerful, he's adaptable, he's like a polka dot,” Wade said.
Founded in 2020 by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood, Polkadot is a “multichain network” that aims to connect various specialized blockchains into a single unified network. Currently, Polkadot (DOT), the 15th largest blockchain by market capitalization according to CoinGecko, is trading at $8.84, up 3.2% on the week.
“The fact that thousands of individuals in the Polkadot community, rather than a corporate marketing team, used their voices to vote and choose me as an ambassador is an incredible honor and more… “It reflects the power of what a free and open internet looks like in the future,” Daly said in a statement.
Image: Polkadot/Connor Daly
The sponsorship deal with Daly, signed through Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and Cusick Motorsports, is the latest partnership between the racing and crypto industries.
In 2021, McLaren Racing launched a collection of F1 NFTs using Tezos. In February 2022, Red Bull Racing signed a $150 million sponsorship deal with cryptocurrency exchange Bybit. The deal with Red Bull Racing was followed by a deal with Sui blockchain developer Mysten Labs in June 2023.
In January, Grammy Award-winning rapper Drake announced a two-year naming sponsorship deal between Sauber F1 and cryptocurrency gambling site Stake.
“The fact that I am fighting not just for brand names and logos, but on behalf of the developers, investors, and ordinary people who are building tomorrow's web, is both thrilling and overwhelming,” Daley said. added. While making sports history. ”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
