The Real Deal? Peter McCormack’s Bedford Bitcoin Bet scores more than goals

The Bitcoin Standard has many formations. For some, selling all possessions and living off magic internet money is key; for others, it’s about sweeping every spare penny into Satoshis. For popular podcaster Peter McCormack–an avid football fan–it meant buying his local club and signing Bitcoin (BTC) onto the team sheet. 

Bitcoin advocate McCormack acquired his hometown football club in December 2021. He renamed and rebranded the club to Real Bedford, and at the ground, Bitcoin qualifies as payment for shirts, drinks and tickets.

But with the price of Bitcoin wallowing in the $20,000s, can the ethos behind a falling currency transform a football club’s future? And more importantly, why has this lower league club caught the attention of Bitcoin advocates around the world?

Pitchside, Cointelegraph caught up with McCormack, local fans and Bitcoiners on the first match of the season which was streamed to hundreds of Bitcoiners around the world.

Ever since he was a boy, McCormack dreamed of buying Bedford Town, the local football club. “Bedford could support a team in the Fooball League,” he told Cointelegraph. He ended up buying the lesser local team, Bedford Football Club which plays in the Spartan South Midlands Football League.

At six leagues below the English Football League (EFL), the footballing ladder for Real Bedford towers high above. McCormack jokes that playing in the Premier League is more of a wind-up–at least for now. Nonetheless,  while footballing achievement is crucial for promotion, the biggest challenge the club currently faces is that “the team’s sponsors are Bitcoin companies.”

In somewhat surreal scenes, adverts for Bitcoin-friendly brands including Casa, Gemini and Compass Mining plaster the billboards surrounding the stadium, while match day kits also feature crypto companies. However, with the Bitcoin bear market in full swing, there’s a risk these companies are in trouble.

“At some point towards the end of the season, I need to go back to them, say, look, we delivered, hopefully, hopefully, hopefully we’re promoted, and it’s all going very well, but I need to go back and say, okay, we need to go to the next level. Okay, I need you to sponsor again.”

Some local fans were bemused by billboard Bitcoin advertisements that enclosed the pitch; others were keen to ask where to get their hands on Bitcoin. Despite the Bitcoin-centric approach, fans Cointelegraph spoke to place greater weight on the manager’s impact than the impact of the club putting “bitcoin at heart.” In essence, Chairman McCormack has financed the team; now it’s time for the manager to galvanize the team and inspire the athletes.

To their credit, the team has enjoyed excellent pre-season results. Real Bedford drew with teams several leagues above and the squad is top of the league table at the time of writing.

The manager, as well as some key players, transferred from local rivals Bedford Town FC before the season, despite that Real Bedford sits two leagues lower down the English footballing pyramid. Plus, McCormack jokes there are more people attending the pregame Bitcoin meetup than attending match days last season.

Building a community is one of those important things for our club. We had 273 at the game today, a huge increase on last season.

Thank you to everyone who came out for the game, bought merchandise and supported the lads. pic.twitter.com/s5mCOXO5o2

— Real Bedford FC (@realbedford) August 6, 2022

Bitcoin Gandalf of Braiins Bitcoin mining company, who attended the game, summed up the atmosphere:

“The fact that there are people coming from all around the U.K. and even Europe to watch a lower league team primarily because they are the first club to run on a Bitcoin standard is a testament to what a paradigm-shifting technology Bitcoin is.”

Bitcoin meetup participants varied