Taylor Swift and FTX Had $100M Sponsorship Deal Talks

Taylor Swift got here near finalizing a sponsorship take care of FTX earlier this yr because the crypto firm was in a downward spiral and burning by way of all the cash it didn’t have. The deal would have introduced yet one more celeb into the already-sizable FTX endorsement fold, reportedly for a price ticket of $100 million over three years.

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, reportedly a fan of Swift’s, lobbied aggressively for a partnership with Swift, regardless of the hefty price ticket and colleagues reportedly advising in opposition to it, based on the Financial Times.

FTX partnership discussions with Swift reportedly started in fall 2021 and ended within the spring with one particular person telling the outlet that Swift “would not, and did not, agree to an endorsement deal. The discussion was around a potential tour sponsorship that did not happen.”

Bankman-Fried denied the story in a message with CNBC and stated, “Partnerships were an area that was more contentious and on the margin I originally was in favor and ultimately started pushing back on new ones.”

Sources informed CNBC that Bankman-Fried tended to encompass himself with people who would supply constructive suggestions for his concepts, whereas a former FTX worker informed the outlet that the CEO would chew out anybody who disagreed with him, leading to a company-wide worry of talking up.

FTX was valued at $32 billion by personal traders earlier this yr however plunged out of business in November in a spectacular collapse that noticed withdrawals halted worldwide. The firm lists almost one million collectors in its chapter filings. Other smaller offers had been proposed, together with utilizing non-fungible tokens, which is a digital forex that may rise and fall in worth, for ticket gross sales tied to Swift’s Eras tour, which is about to kick off in March of subsequent yr, Ticketmaster debacle pending.

In the primary two years of making FTX, Bankman-Fried had signed high-profile partnerships together with a $135 million deal over 19 years with the NBA’s Miami Heat for naming rights on their area. Other sponsorships included the Golden State Warriors, Major League Baseball, and Formula One, and among the many firm’s model ambassadors had been Gisele Bündchen, Tom Brady, Shaquille O’Neal, Stephen Curry, David Ortiz, and Naomi Osaka.

People on FTX’s advertising group stated they questioned whether or not making a partnership with Swift could be useful to their buyer base, reported Rolling Stone. One supply informed Rolling Stone, “No one really liked the deal. It was too expensive from the beginning,” including the value was “very high . . . really f***ing high. That’s front of the soccer jersey level prices.”