Oxford City FC enters partnership with CoinCorner to deliver Bitcoin matchday payments

Published by

Peter Davison

Oxford City FC has become the first National League club to accept matchday payments in Bitcoin after entering a multi-year partnership with Isle of Man-based CoinCorner.

The partnership will allow supporters to purchase tickets at turnstiles and food and drink products seven days a week inside the RAW Charging Stadium using digital currency as an alternative to traditional cash and card methods.

CoinCorner has also been confirmed as Oxford City FC’s back-of-shirt sponsor.

The move means payments can be made using CoinCorner’s ‘The Bolt Card’ – the world’s first contactless card for Bitcoin – designed to make Bitcoin currency easy and accessible for everyone to use.

The technology has been installed at the club ahead of last Saturday’s opening National League South fixture at home to Eastbourne Borough where representatives from CoinCorner were in attendance to explain more about Bitcoin payment.

Daniel Scott, CEO of CoinCorner, said: “Innovation and forward-thinking sit at the heart of our key working objectives, just like Oxford City FC.

“It’s pleasing to see the club become the first adopters of Bitcoin payment in the National League.

"We believe this move will set a trend across Non-League and Football League divisions as digital currency establishes itself as the new normal for sports fan and eventgoers across the UK.

“More people than ever are now paying and receiving funds via Bitcoin and Oxford City FC are accommodating for this demand by installing our simplistic, easy-to-use, technology.”

Justin Merritt, Director of Football at Oxford City FC, added: “More than 3.3 million people living in the UK now own digital currency – an increase of approximately one million people in the last year alone.

“It’s a real eye-opener understanding how significant and accepted Bitcoin is in the modern, digital, age. As a football club, we are constantly striving to develop and improve our overall customer experience which is why our partnership with CoinCorner is so important to us.

“Embracing the latest technologies and innovations to ensure Oxford City FC can continue to operate as a self-sustaining club is a key part of our long-term objectives

“It’s not mandatory for people to engage with our new technology, but we believe in time paying via Bitcoin will become the new normal in English football.”

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.