Cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com is sponsoring a new professional golf competition with millions of dollars worth of CRO—the native token of the Cronos network—up for grabs.

The Crypto.com Showdown will feature LIV Golf professionals Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau in a 2v2 competition against their former PGA Tour rivals, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler—the latter the current top-ranked player in the world.

The event, which the exchange says is the first major golf tournament to be paid via Cronos, will be hosted in Las Vegas on December 17. 

Decrypt reached out for clarification on the precise amount of CRO (or dollar amount worth of CRO) that will be awarded, but did not immediately receive a response.

Crypto.com has a history of sponsorship in professional sports. The company recently announced a multi-year sponsorship of soccer’s UEFA Champions League and retains the naming rights to the Crypto.com Arena—previously known as the Staples Center—which hosts the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. 

“At Crypto.com, we look for ‘firsts,” said Crypto.com Chief Marketing Officer Steven Kalifowitz, in a statement. “Now, we will be the first to host a major golf tournament with the world’s top ranked players from LIV and the PGA Tour teeing off for a world’s-first purse in CRO cryptocurrency.”

Cronos, the 33rd largest market cap token according to data from CoinGecko, is up nearly 6% in the last 24 hours to a current price above $0.18.

While new crypto sports sponsorships had dwindled following the FTX bankruptcy filing in late 2022, the trend is accelerating once more. Data from CoinGecko shows that more than twice the amount of new sports sponsorships have been inked in 2024 than in 2023.

Edited by Andrew Hayward