In a release this morning, ESPN Events announced that BitPay has signed on as the new title sponsor of the annual college football bowl game played in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The bowl will now be known as the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl. Kickoff is set for 8pm ET on Friday, Dec. 26, 2014 and the game will be televised by ESPN. The bowl pits a team from the ACC against a team from the American Athletic Conference.
“We’re extremely excited to welcome BitPay to college football and our bowl home in St. Petersburg,” said Brett Dulaney, Executive Director of the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl. “We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial arrangement.”
BitPay is a Payment Service Provider (PSP) specializing in eCommerce, B2B, and enterprise solutions for the Bitcoin digital currency. BitPay, founded by Anthony Gallippi and Stephen Pair in 2011, is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. According to Bloomberg, BitPay “processes over $1 million per day in bitcoin payments for over 30,000 merchants.”
“Our goal is to continue to move bitcoin into the mainstream and sponsoring the St. Petersburg Bowl offers us that opportunity,” said Tony Gallippi, Executive Chairman for BitPay. “College football fans and the bitcoin community represent a similar target demographic – tech-savvy men between the ages of 18 and 40.”
BitPay is the third sponsor in the history of the St. Petersburg Bowl. Past sponsors were Beef O’ Brady’s (2009-2013) and magicJack (2008).