SBI e-Sports, a part of SBI Holdings, announced recently that it is adding two new players to its team, and that they will start receiving salaries in XRP.
The Japan-based financial firm, SBI Holdings, recently established its own esports team, calling it simply SBI e-Sports. Now, it announced that its team will be joined by two new professional players, but also that both of them will receive salaries in the form of XRP — the world’s fourth-largest cryptocurrency.
The choice to be paid in crypto falls on the players
SBI Holdings has seemingly been planning to switch to crypto payments for its esports players for quite some time. The original announcement that professionals will receive salaries in XRP came weeks ago, in late September.
To make it possible, SBI e-Sports partnered with SBI Holdings’ other sector, SBI VC Trade, which is basically the company’s asset sales division.
However, it is worth mentioning that players did have a choice, meaning that they could have opted not to receive payments in digital currencies, if they wanted to. It was an individual choice, so players did not have to agree or disagree with it as an entire group, either.
The fact that the company chose Ripple’s XRP is not surprising, however. After all, SBI is known for being one or Ripple’s major partners and stakeholders, and it is already offering XRP dividends to some of its stakeholders.
Two new players join SBI e-Sports
As mentioned, SBI e-Sports announced that two players have decided to accept the offer. One of them is Subaru “Mikey” Sagano, a professional FIFA 21 player, who previously played as a part of the German soccer club 1, FC Nurnberg.
The other is known as Kenji “Ken” Suzuki, who is a professional player of Super Smash Bros, Ultimate. Suzuki is also known as one of the best in Japan when it comes to the Nintendo Switch fighting game.
🎮SBI e-Sportsにおける新規部門発足と選手の新規加入のお知らせ
KEN選手とMikey選手の年俸は、ご本人の希望とスポンサー契約に基づき、#XRP にて支給されます。
今後も、当社はSBI e-Sportsのトップパートナーとして2選手のチャレンジ・活動を応援してまいります。https://t.co/2cyvNcF1LY— SBI VC Trade (SBI VCトレード） (@sbivc_official) October 15, 2020
Both have agreed to receive payments in XRP, rather than the Japanese yen, according to the announcement. The players themselves confirmed this on Twitter, as part of their own announcements regarding the signings.
［御報告］
本日よりSBI e-sportsのスマブラ部門に所属させて頂くことになりました。年俸は株式会社SBIVCトレード様とのスポンサー契約に基づき暗号資産「XRP」で受領します。
至らぬ点もあると思いますがプロプレイヤーとして精一杯努めていきたいと思いますので応援の方、よろしくお願い致します。 pic.twitter.com/M7xdBgTwdF— 【SBI】KEN (@KENisbg) October 15, 2020
The company hinted at the move earlier this year
As far as it is known, SBI e-Sports will be the first esports team organization that will allow their players to receive digital currency as payment. In fact, they are doing more than that — they are making crypto a central part of their public messaging.
Of course, back when the division was originally announced — back in June 2020 — the organization hinted at the potential collaboration with SBI VC Trade. At the time, however, there were no official announcements confirming it.
The announcement only said that the firm is planning to raise awareness of the SBI Group by strengthening contracts with the digital generation.
SBI also plans to hold a STO
Another big announcement that SBI Group made recently was the plan to launch an STO (Security Token Offering). The STO will be for SBI e-Sports, and it will take place on October 30th.
According to the launch, it would include 1,000 total shares in the company, each of which would be priced at 50,000 yen, which is around $475. To do it, the company will use BOOSTRY’s blockchain network.
