George Manolov discusses integrating Bitcoin into Botev Plovdiv, Bulgaria's oldest football club.
This episode of TFTC features a deep dive into the unique intersection of Bitcoin and football, with a spotlight on Botev Plovdiv, the oldest football club in Bulgaria. The guest, George, serves as the director of Bitcoin within the club and shares his journey from becoming a Bitcoin maximalist to integrating Bitcoin into the club's operations. The conversation explores the strategic vision behind adopting Bitcoin, the educational initiatives surrounding it, the impact on the community, and the future prospects of both the club and the country in embracing Bitcoin.
George's passion and strategic thinking reveal the multifaceted potential of Bitcoin not only as a financial asset but also as a cultural and educational vehicle. By blending the traditional aspects of football with the innovative features of Bitcoin, Botev Plovdiv is setting a precedent for other clubs and institutions to follow.
This fusion of sports, history, and Bitcoin exemplifies a forward-thinking approach to community engagement, financial stability, and global outreach. It serves as a case study for the transformative power of Bitcoin beyond traditional financial narratives, potentially inspiring similar initiatives across various industries and sectors.
0:00 - Intro
0:14 - First involvement with Botev Plovdiv - Cut fuckup
6:29 - Starting a bitcoin plan for the club
13:02 - River & Unchained
14:17 - Communicating reasons for bitcoin
21:57 - Fanbase reception
27:03 - Gradually, Then Suddenly & Zaprite
28:40 - Challenges of a sports business
34:19 - Bitcoin financial plan
40:28 - Bulgaria
46:44 - El Salvador
58:13 - Sound money mindset
1:01:50 - The players
1:09:34 - Plugs
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:04:09
George
I know what you're saying. oh. Good. You hear me? Well, yeah.
00:00:04:11 - 00:00:09:24
Marty
Yeah, I can hear you. Well. And it looks like. Logan. Push the button. We're live. George, welcome to the show.
00:00:09:27 - 00:00:12:23
George
All right. Thanks. Good to be here.
00:00:12:26 - 00:00:23:05
Marty
It's, I'm a little jealous that you're in Prague. I've been seeing pictures of people parading around Prague over the last week, and it looks like it's a beautiful time of year. There.
00:00:23:07 - 00:00:37:00
George
Yeah, it's it's lovely. It's it's nice to, you know, be it's it's another event and keep seeing familiar faces. Yeah. Excited for the next few days.
00:00:37:02 - 00:00:48:15
Marty
I'm excited for the next few days in Prague. And I'm excited to talk to you, because I think what you're doing in Bulgaria with both have, Plovdiv is how you pronounce it.
00:00:48:18 - 00:00:49:25
George
Yes, exactly.
00:00:49:27 - 00:01:00:04
Marty
So the oldest football club in Bulgaria, you are the director of Bitcoin within the club. How did all of this come to be?
00:01:00:07 - 00:01:16:06
George
Yeah. Crazy story. well, like, you know, basically a couple of years ago, yeah, a little more than two years ago, I, I decided, wait.
00:01:16:08 - 00:01:22:09
Marty
This you can see Logan. Is something going on? There we go.
00:01:22:11 - 00:01:53:24
George
Yeah. Okay. So a couple of years ago, I. I would say I became like, Bitcoin maxi, thanks to to Alan, Farrington, and his, and his, only the strong survive piece. And ever since then, I've kind of been tinkering around, you know, how to get like 100% involved in in bitcoin. And, last year I first started doing my educational project.
00:01:53:27 - 00:02:19:10
George
Bitcoin really got me where I was just like blogging, creating educational content. Meanwhile, have been working on my, like publishing books here. in Bulgaria, publishes the Bitcoin standard price of tomorrow, little book about bitcoin. And now we're translating also paid standard and broken money. And last summer it was like July or early August or something.
00:02:19:10 - 00:02:50:00
George
I, I was put in touch with, with the owner of, multiple of this, Anton's in who cobbled the club three years ago in 2021, because he saw huge opportunity in, in, in developing the club right at the time, the club was not performing very well on the field business wise. and, but but still he saw this big opportunity because, like you said, it's the oldest football club in Bulgaria.
00:02:50:03 - 00:03:14:09
George
It has a very, you know, significant third largest fan base in the country. It has had its quite glorious days, actually. This season we're celebrating 40 years since, we played in Europe and, we, we had a big win against Bayern Munich. in the, in the 80s, at in Plovdiv. And, there was a lot of kind of that was going on.
00:03:14:10 - 00:03:37:23
George
Plovdiv is also a great city. You know, it's it's one of those cities that is not that well known, but but very much appreciated. It was also we just recently also got a completely new stadium, created that was, that is the most modern, facility in the country in terms of soccer, in terms of just like a sports, sports stadium.
00:03:37:25 - 00:03:58:17
George
And, and Anton, you know, has been doing like these, these two, three years, lots of improvements on the sort of like the traditional side, just like doing all kinds of best practices from, you know, developed, for donations to improve the, the club on a business level, to improve the club. And, on, on, on like a sports level.
00:03:58:17 - 00:04:27:00
George
Football level, just just leveling up. the structure and organization of it all. But, he also got Oranje built by, by some people around him, and they, they gave him this bag, this idea of like, hey, you can you can do something with Bitcoin. Bitcoin can be your, your strategy to, reach, back this European, level that the club used to play at four years ago or so.
00:04:27:02 - 00:05:05:00
George
buy sure. Implement all these best practices. But on top of that, add this, this Bitcoin ingredient and get people excited about what you're doing. And, and what's even more interesting about this whole thing is that not only, you know, there's this opportunity to level up the, the club and how it's doing, but but because the club has already this very large footprint in, in the country, in the city for sure, you know, you can have this extremely positive impact, on the people, on the community around the club.
00:05:05:03 - 00:05:33:01
George
as, as you kind of, you know, bring, you know, especially if you if you manage to successfully integrate Bitcoin within the club, educate people around the club and just like bring this, this, conversation about Bitcoin from a completely different angle, you know, from a sports entertainment angle as opposed to just like, you know, the topic of just money and finance, which is, which is kind of the standard way in which people go about.
00:05:33:03 - 00:05:55:14
George
And so and so he was looking for person to, to lead this effort, right, to project, project, manage it. And and that's how we got connected. I was like, like, frankly, I couldn't believe that that's even happening because Plovdiv is my, my home, city. I was born there. I grew up there. And, past ten years I've been living mostly in Sofia, which is the capital of Bulgaria.
00:05:55:16 - 00:06:38:19
George
But still, you know, Plovdiv is where my heart lies. and, and I couldn't say no, you know, it's it's just been it's just been one of those things, you know, like, as, as Steve Jobs said in, in this, famous speech of his, like, just like looking back at everything I did for the past ten years of my professional life and so on and so forth, kind of like putting me in this position to, to be able to, to to give, serious try at some at, integrating Bitcoin and making something, something big for, for this club for, for, for my city and you know, hopefully, hopefully for, for
00:06:38:19 - 00:06:43:28
George
sports in general. I feel like yeah.
00:06:44:01 - 00:07:26:15
Marty
It's so cool to see obviously you were mentioning before, obviously Peter McCormack and Bedford have done this with Real Bedford. with all this mine being approached, an asset to handle the Bitcoin operations, within the team, I'm just really curious. You're coming to it from an educational standpoint for the fans and the community. Obviously, there's a financial component for for the club itself, like trying to put Bitcoin on the Treasury so that you can reap the benefits of Bitcoin going up in value and then reinvest that in the club.
00:07:26:17 - 00:07:39:09
Marty
But how do you approach this as the director of Bitcoin. Like what what are the first steps that you take. What are some of the first things that you do to develop a plan and then begin implementing it? Where do you start?
00:07:39:11 - 00:08:07:00
George
Right, right. Well, to be fair, we started from from there, from the very basics, because when I joined, started formally in like last, September, and we were like, okay, we're now integrating Bitcoin and the goal of it being like I say, over the, long term financial benefits over the medium term internet. Yeah. Two to internationalize the brand of the club.
00:08:07:02 - 00:08:33:10
George
and so, the club at the time was, and, you know, it was very Bulgarian focused. Right? Even our website was exclusively in Bulgaria. Right. So we couldn't really kind of make any serious announcement and people were taking it seriously. If we have everything in Bulgaria. So, you know, there's all these Bitcoin things, but there's all these kind of traditional, improvements, that, that needed to be done.
00:08:33:12 - 00:08:53:13
George
And that's still to be felt like a lot of the things we, we need to, to work on to improve in order to like, say, introduce lots of best practices from, from clubs in general. So, so we get back to this European level. So first thing for me was really just, just like creating a new website.
00:08:53:15 - 00:09:15:10
George
So started in September and the goal was we decided, okay, like we need to move fast. we set a deadline that by the end of October 31st, when when it was the anniversary of the white paper that we have this, this life. So it was it was quite hectic, had the pleasure of working with, with a bitcoin designer who has experience designing other Bitcoin products.
00:09:15:10 - 00:09:42:02
George
He created the design of the website. They then found, dedicated guys who actually build up the website, you know, code it and everything. and in the meantime, obviously, just doing the very basics, which for us were as first steps, integrating payments so people can, can actually come to the stadium buying Bitcoin in different shops, buying Bitcoin online.
00:09:42:04 - 00:10:06:12
George
for, for our, our, our, stories and so on and so forth. So setting this up with with BTC pay server, with with our local, partner, crypto desk. and these were kind of old, all the very basics, like just to set it all and also kind of actually, introduced, the organization.
00:10:06:12 - 00:10:28:27
George
Right. Like, one or more the organization into, you know, why are we doing this? Why is this, something that makes sense, which, to be fair, was challenging, because, at the time when I joined specifically, the club was not doing particularly well on the field. Like, it's really like the end of August, the beginning of September.
00:10:29:00 - 00:10:48:15
George
we just had a streak of lots of losses. There was very bad sentiment overall. you know, within the club, around the club, which is also, you know, added this, this sort of hesitancy. So, like, are we ready to do this? Because at the end of the day, we're a football club for us. Right then first and foremost, what people care about.
00:10:48:15 - 00:11:18:22
George
And that's how it should be results on the field. Right. And if there are good results on the field, then you can do generally business. business ventures, or any kind of like other other ventures around the club. But, but, but football first comes first, right? So this was not going well, but nevertheless I was like, okay, and we move as quickly as possible and we kind of keep fingers crossed that things start improving so that we were able to abide.
00:11:18:22 - 00:11:46:10
George
By the end of October, we are ready to, to launch to make this announcement. and, and if you know, if for whatever reason, things really haven't been good and we decided bad timing is super bad, okay, we can postpone it, but, but fortunately for us, actually, right around the time when I joined, we also got, a new sports director, guy that has quite a lot of experience, with Borussia Dortmund.
00:11:46:13 - 00:12:25:15
George
we got a, a new coach, leading the team, who? Both of whom actually played a very, very key role and also a few other like experienced players joined, joined the club too, as leaders, so to say, especially our captain, who is like very experienced, he's like 36 years old or something. Many people disregarded him but but he together with again the coach sports director and of course all the players in the team managed to really level up the, the squad, to get the team back, back on track, to start winning and to put us in the position that, you know, October 31st, we did launch.
00:12:25:15 - 00:12:49:18
George
We did announce, and and, and from then on, it's it's been lots of fun, you know, like, several weeks after that, we got, during the camp visiting to create, like, a small documentary about the things we've been working on, and, and, and, and it's been, you know, it's like, you see, what is the plan to what is the strategy?
00:12:49:18 - 00:13:09:17
George
How do we define it? It's like a start up, to be fair. You know, like we we kind of have a direction we're going. We know we want to internationalize the crop, but we didn't have all the all the things at the start. Right. And even today, I mean, today we have a way, way to your perspective, right where we are, where we're going.
00:13:09:19 - 00:13:18:08
George
But but lots of the things are kind of being defined as we go. if I can put it that way.
00:13:18:10 - 00:13:58:27
Marty
Yeah, that's extremely exciting. It's a bit I don't want to say odd, but it's funny how, I mean, like you mentioned, people typically talk about Bitcoin in the context of personal finance and, growing your wealth. But when you when you begin to think about implementing it into a business, especially something like a soccer club, it's somewhat a bigger it's, it's, intellectual exercise that I imagine is invigorating and extremely rewarding because it's such a unique.
00:13:58:29 - 00:14:10:11
Marty
Yeah, angle in the sense that it's like, all right, we got this Bitcoin thing. Like communicating it not only to the players, the coaches, the team and then the fans. I can imagine people are like, why are you implementing Bitcoin. And it's.
00:14:10:17 - 00:14:38:27
George
Yeah. No. Exactly. And that's true until even until today to a large extent, still although it's changing and and you know, I think it will change quite drastically with what we have planned and, and the positive momentum that we've, created on the field, in that, yeah. You know, like I said, we started from the basic payments and that's kind of what most people imagine when when they're like, oh, you've adopted Bitcoin.
00:14:39:00 - 00:15:27:19
George
So do you just accept payments and like, yeah, sure. I mean that that's the start. That's kind of the basics. But then like you said, once you start thinking about it, especially when you have this, this organization, this really a community of people around this course, around this idea of, of, of a football club, in our case, like a very, you know, not just any football club, but in our case, the oldest football club, in the happened to be also in the oldest, continuously habitat city in all of Europe, a club that, our patron again, quite, quite coincidentally and symbolically, the club motif was named after,
00:15:27:23 - 00:15:58:13
George
Crystal motive, who is, easily, you know, the most renowned, historical figure, in Bulgaria as, about 150 years ago, he, he was a revolutionary who fought for Bulgaria's Bulgaria's freedom, from the Ottoman Empire at the time. And, and not just Bulgaria's freedom, but he was like, you know, he was a true freedom, freedom lover, like, because, outside of just revolutionary, he was also a sport.
00:15:58:13 - 00:16:28:00
George
So he has made many, many poets and, and he has these quotes, every, every now and then that are, you know, obviously much of it is about, you know, getting Bulgarians free, but but but some of those are so kind of like in, in harmony with Bitcoin's philosophy and all. he has, for example, one of this thing was like, only one who is who is free can can truly be called human.
00:16:28:03 - 00:16:52:23
George
he has this other quote that, you know, well, I can't remember top of my head, but it was something like, the the fight for freedom. The struggle for freedom requires many minds and brains, many, many hands and brains. Many, many people involved. Right. which which, you know, and people are very connected to this mission here, right?
00:16:52:23 - 00:17:13:04
George
You know, like, like the fans, the community that they're very connected to, to the figure of, of to this historical figure of, but, you know, we commemorate, his birth, we commemorate, the date on which he was shot. we we like to say, you know, there there's this saying that, he he never truly died.
00:17:13:06 - 00:17:50:15
George
because people who fight for freedom, they don't die. They they continue to live. and and he definitely continues to live in, in the memory of our fans in, in, in spirit of our club and then and again like, so, so in our case, you know, this is just one example how I came to how, you know, we can over time and we're starting to slowly incorporate Bitcoin in this, in this identity really of the club, because there is this natural match between what would this, pattern of our stance for and what, you know, 150 years ago, a Bitcoin essentially stands for.
00:17:50:15 - 00:18:13:23
George
Right. It's again, this, this new, this new frontier, for, for, for humanity, to, to regain their freedom. So this is, this is one thing, you know, identity wise, but but there's, like I say, so, so many ways in which, in which we can integrate Bitcoin. So and obviously kind of like payment system is, is kind of the basics.
00:18:13:25 - 00:18:48:19
George
Then what we've done is obviously started to integrate in terms of branding here and there. We've got like the Bitcoin logo on, on, on our official, jerseys on the kids. we, we have we've been starting to do education here and there by having Bitcoin books added to the fans shops, by starting to do regular meetups where we, we invite, you know, bitcoiners in general a couple of times to, to have these, these very excited football fans like, like both fan Square who are also bitcoiners.
00:18:48:21 - 00:19:13:04
George
So we're trying to create this match. we, we partnered with John three to, there, there there have been, they've been they've been a great partner of us now for, for like five, six months or so. and, we got their aqua wallet, which is, non-custodial on chain lightning and liquid wallet, that supports Bitcoin and USD.
00:19:13:06 - 00:19:36:03
George
We got it to be towards to, to Boulder. So basically like the, the foam has the regular, light mode, dark mode. And then we added a lot of mode, which kind of turned the phone into, the iconic, yellow, black colors of the club as well. It's, you know, you have the, the, the clubs, the clubs.
00:19:36:06 - 00:20:02:24
George
well, the stadium, shows when you open the app. And of course, we introduced Bulgarian language, so it's, so it's easily accessible to, to fans and in general to the, to the Bulgarian audience, and, and multiple kind of other to such, you know, such small things here and there and, and but but frankly, I think the most exciting is it's still ahead because like you say, there's, there's so much you can think of is just that in our case.
00:20:02:27 - 00:20:35:19
George
And I'll say the case for almost any large club that he does, it, it's you have to that there needs to be a right timing and the right pace in which you, you kind of integrate and do things with Bitcoin. So it's it's well accepted and understood and, and and you don't like create let's say friction too much friction with kind of the existing culture, the existing understanding the existing community.
00:20:35:19 - 00:20:59:22
George
Right. Because there's this, there's these people, you know, who are extremely passionate about the club in many different ways. So you want on board? but but like, you know, you know, with orange peeling, anyone, you know, it takes time and, and if you go to, to kind of, hard on people, or to, to abruptly, it can also have, counter effects.
00:20:59:24 - 00:21:06:22
Marty
And with that in mind, how is the reception from the fanbase been to the strategy overall?
00:21:06:25 - 00:21:29:04
George
So it's been it's been actually significantly better than I expected, at some point because like, some people are like, yeah, people are going to be like, what the fuck is this? People could be also negative. I was frankly a bit concerned or quite concerned, especially before we announced it, like last week or so, how it would be perceived.
00:21:29:04 - 00:21:56:23
George
Or I expected some negativity, like, let's call it this way, I expected some negativity, but but on the positive side, especially when we announced that there was zero negativity whatsoever. Like like there were zero negative comments on social media and either no comments, no interest or or positive comments because there's been a small group, obviously, like, bitcoiners in the country were immediately very excited about this.
00:21:56:25 - 00:22:19:06
George
There was a small group of, of, you know, real hardcore fans. I would say like five, six, seven people that, that I connected to that, that also were bitcoiners from either mining or using or HODLing in one way or another. And just like being very, very actively following Bitcoin. So they were excited and positive.
00:22:19:06 - 00:22:40:20
George
And you know, we have this group with them where we're brainstorming, and kind of bouncing ideas, what and how to do and how to kind of grow, you know, this, this, this virus, so to say. Right. within the community. But the vast majority of people didn't really, didn't really have any opinion whatsoever. They didn't care.
00:22:40:23 - 00:23:02:22
George
They didn't understand. And even until today, I would say vast majority of people still still don't get it, still don't completely understand what is what is the relation? but but kind of, you know, as, as we like to say and as we created these, these, jerseys, the best is yet to come. one, one go at a time.
00:23:02:24 - 00:23:37:05
George
So, so, so we've been very fortunate, to be fair, we've been very fortunate to have, mostly positive wins behind us, with the club going better with the price of Bitcoin going, going positive also obviously obviously helps. I had many people, you know, when I first joined, I did this onboarding session, to the club administration and people were like like most people were just like, what the hell does this have the club, to do with the club at all?
00:23:37:07 - 00:24:07:11
George
there were let's say you just didn't see the connection and weren't particularly curious about it. and fast forward, you know, several months later, because at the time, the price was paying about 28, 29,000 or something. and fast forward, you know, price goes to 40, 50, and then, you know, basically all time high, people just like, look at your bit more seriously, you know, or some get more curious.
00:24:07:11 - 00:24:35:29
George
Some even ask me, hey, how do I buy? You know, so, so so that has definitely help, you know, kind of the, the environment internally in the club in terms of, you know, we starting to to win on the field and we'll win significantly. You know with with us eventually winning the the Cup this season. And then also kind of the external and external factors of just just coincidence, you know, having the panic when, when the price also also goes up.
00:24:36:01 - 00:24:38:13
Marty
And number go up solves a lot of things.
00:24:38:15 - 00:24:39:21
George
There.
00:24:39:23 - 00:24:41:23
Marty
Timing.
00:24:41:26 - 00:25:06:00
George
Yeah. It's kind of also like what what will get me to number go up is like what what gives me and energy to to do kind of bitcoin related things. Like even back in the day I the my first bitcoin let's say endeavor was, was contacting say for them to publish his booking book. Yeah. And I was like I mean I'm it's going to take some investment of mine.
00:25:06:04 - 00:25:24:29
George
And at the time it was a, it was a meaningful investment, of, of money. But I'm like, understand this number is going to go up. And this is essentially the marketing of the book. So it will pay off. Right? So so it's a it's a good investment and kind of the same I look at it here in the club right.
00:25:25:01 - 00:25:36:21
George
eventually early or later the market will be with us. So we just have to do the hard work. So we're there and the number go up just reinforces the work we've done now.
00:25:36:23 - 00:26:01:06
Marty
And that's a very important point. historically, because of the price volatility, people just stay on the sidelines like I'll wait until it stabilizes. But once you understand. So yeah, it's probably not going to stabilize, anytime soon. We'll probably get like another decade or two maybe. but with that, my it's like, all right, then you have to internalize like, time in the market is much better than timing the market.
00:26:01:06 - 00:26:06:10
Marty
So you just got to start get after it at some point.
00:26:06:12 - 00:26:14:24
George
Yeah. Exactly. And then once you're in for four years or five years will be good.
00:26:14:27 - 00:26:23:05
Marty
And biotech will be in the, the European Cup finals, due to the fact that they've, they had the hardest money in the world. Yeah.
00:26:23:09 - 00:26:46:17
George
No, that's actually that's actually quite hard. you know, as as I started to understand, you know, the, the football business is complicated, like in sports business in general on a big level. It's hard. It takes a lot of it's not like it's just like a startup because, okay, you have your product there. here you have many people involved, right?
00:26:46:23 - 00:27:13:27
George
Like personal things. People things. You have the coach, you have the director, you have the pure sports side. Then you have the business side, which is there to reinforce the sports side. and, and, and it's also you have also the, you know, sourcing players, developing players. You have these balance because like the football businesses is a lot about as you grow the club.
00:27:13:29 - 00:27:34:24
George
you know people that there's, there's this factor where you have to sell players, you have to buy because, a large part of the business revenues of, of a football club are just like selling players, right. but you also have to do this in the right base, or in the right way. So you don't sell to too many of your good players.
00:27:34:24 - 00:27:59:29
George
So at the same time, you keep attracting, uprising stars or people with potential when you develop them so that you at the same time prove the financial situation of the club as you improve the squads. Right. and, and so there's, there's so many, so many things that get it getting in in the success of a of a club and especially over, over, over the years.
00:27:59:29 - 00:28:23:18
George
It's a lot of work. It's a lot of hard work. It's a lot of consistent work from the players, from the people who manage the players. like, it's a lot of sports work. It's a lot of like psychology. and then and then the business side is obviously kind of the traditional hard work that anyone has to, put in the processes and structures that have to be in place.
00:28:23:18 - 00:29:11:07
George
There, to, to have a, you know, like a good business with good products that, that clients fans are happy with, satisfied with stuff. So it's, it's good and they, you know, purchase products and services from the club. The, the they get others involved and so on and so forth. So it's it's a long game, you know, and in our case, I as I see it, you know, we could very well so frankly, like my, my belief is, and as we discussed, you know, with, with, other key stakeholders in the club, like with this Bitcoin strategy we can make within, let's say, a year, the club, to be largely,
00:29:11:10 - 00:29:35:03
George
recognized as, as the professional, you know, Bitcoin club, globally within 3 to 4 years. if, you know, if we execute well and if we continue developing the team and if we stay true to through this Bitcoin strategy, we know within 3 to 4 years, hopefully we can become like a signet, like a a serious and well-known player on the European level.
00:29:35:05 - 00:30:02:19
George
You know, starting from this year, hopefully after winning the Cup, we are now next month's entering, the Europa League games, which is kind of the second biggest league in Europe, after the Champions League, obviously where where the top, top teams play and then, you know, with lots of again, hard work consistency. And you know the the Bitcoin is as kind of this supercharger on the back end.
00:30:02:21 - 00:30:27:00
George
I think it is possible, you know 8 to 910 years down the line, to really become one of those to play against the biggest teams. in Europe like, like we did, you know, 40 years ago again against Bayern Munich. it's just it just takes a lot of time and that. But but I think it's totally worth it because this this can be an amazing story.
00:30:27:02 - 00:30:55:11
George
This can make a huge difference. And, you know, to be fair, the more the more I learn about the sports industry, the more I see what others are doing. And obviously understanding Bitcoin, I think it's kind of inevitable for other clubs, and established clubs to basically do a lot of what we are doing for this. Obviously, to adopt Bitcoin as a, some sort of a treasury as an asset.
00:30:55:14 - 00:31:29:12
George
but yeah, we just have this disadvantage. kind of similar to, to, El Salvador in a way that we we're a serious club. Salvador is the real country. Right. But but, you know, we're both underdogs, right? and so if we if we see where things are going as we do and if we adopt them earlier and we kind of, yeah, combine this with, with hard work, we can, we can catch up.
00:31:29:14 - 00:31:51:21
George
hopefully even outpace the, the leaders who are today sleeping in their comfort zone, you know, just just just because you're, you're a successful country or you're in a successful club and you don't have to think much outside of the box, or you think just the world is going to be the way it's going to be, which, yeah.
00:31:51:23 - 00:32:18:10
Marty
No, it's changed. It's changing rather quickly. And in terms of that, like utilizing Bitcoin to help leapfrog the club back to, the success it had many decades ago from a corporate finance perspective, like actually using bitcoin. What does that look like? Is it, taking ticket sales and merch revenue, rolling a portion of that in the Bitcoin?
00:32:18:10 - 00:32:41:27
Marty
Is it on the treasury once the bitcoins on the Treasury, do you utilize it in a particular way. You're going to sell Bitcoin in the future to get cash to pay for players or new amenities, or simply use Bitcoin as collateral in loans, or simply as a treasury asset to build the value of the club over time.
00:32:42:00 - 00:33:05:22
George
Right. So in our case, the way it's the way it goes is, is the following. So, when, when, you know, the honorable the club, the president of the club, for the club, three years ago, the club was at the loss, right. and and the club is still generating a loss, but it's it has been improving a lot over, over the past, three years.
00:33:05:22 - 00:33:43:25
George
Right. so we've been improving on the field. We've been improving on the, on the business side. So, but still, you know, we we are not we're not breakeven as an organization as, as unfortunately is the case with with many with many other sports clubs and particular football clubs. And so the strategies, you know, for us to get to breakeven as quickly as possible and then, you know, to grow the profit that involves, again, best practices improving, getting more people, on the, on the stadium before and getting just like introducing many, many things that are standard, let's say in Western Europe.
00:33:43:25 - 00:34:10:21
George
And then the US. I guess in sports here where we're like not standard at all, just like engaging more people, getting the stadiums to be full because we've got like, this is amazing facility, 18,600 people. which however, for various reasons, like last season, we literally got the stadium full, full twice on two games, right? I think with the success next year is going to be next year, I think.
00:34:10:21 - 00:34:30:26
George
Hope we can, I'm pretty confident we can do it, like at these 6 or 7 games or more and increase, you know, consistently the, the average attendance until like hopefully at next season or so we can we can start getting all old games field. But anyways coming coming back to to kind of the strategies when it comes to Bitcoin.
00:34:30:26 - 00:35:07:19
George
So the strategy at this point is because we're still not like we don't have a strong balance sheet as, as some other clubs. the strategy is really to, you know, grow our brand, to grow our revenues and at the same time to sell a part of, the business, to sell part of the, of the shares of the business to, external parties, to investors, to the fan base, who can then get a stake, who can become co-owners of the club.
00:35:07:22 - 00:35:33:28
George
And, with those proceeds, that that will generate, on a large part will build a capital base in terms of Bitcoin and, smaller parts will use to, to level up the squad and specifically within, within one year, we hope and we aim to to get to this break. Blake, breakeven level where the club can sustain itself, where the club can continue growing its profitable position.
00:35:34:00 - 00:36:05:03
George
And at the same time, we can we can keep this these Bitcoin as a as as a key treasury asset as a buffer. and as you have Bitcoin on the, on the balance sheet, you know, and as you know the trajectory that Bitcoin is going, you know, over time this can also enable you and in our case like part of the strategies to well find the right moment, to leverage some of that Bitcoin potentially can be true.
00:36:05:05 - 00:36:28:27
George
Can be true. bonds. it can be true kind of strategy that my group, Michael Saylor has, has pioneered. Right. And many others are following, we, we plan to do on a football level. So that's kind of the corporate, let's say, overview strategy of kind of where we're going.
00:36:28:29 - 00:36:43:09
Marty
yeah. Which really highlights it. It's a long game. It's like taking care of the basics, going to break even, controlling profits in and reinvigorating the fan base, getting them in the stadium. How many how many seats is a stadium hold?
00:36:43:12 - 00:37:07:05
George
18,600 by several hundred. Yeah, yeah. So it's reinvigorating everything, the fans. But it's also like growing the fan base internationally. I, you know, from next season, we, we need to start broadcasting our games internationally. I mean, the, the European leagues are going to be the European games are going to be broadcast, but but also home games, we're working to get them broadcasted.
00:37:07:05 - 00:37:31:27
George
So, other people can, can watch. we, we're also like, one of the key things is because we're located in Europe, traveling in Europe is kind of easy. This the city is actually worth visiting for many, many reasons. You know, just as a tourist, it's it's quite lost for for digital nomads because it's, because it's quite affordable.
00:37:31:29 - 00:37:57:24
George
so people we want to position it as a place where you come over a weekend or you come over several weeks or a month, watch a game, do other things around around the city. so, so that's also part of the strategy of, of, of growing revenues. And, and also by internationalizing the brand, there's, there's so much more in terms of like sponsors in terms of like digital products that that we can sell to.
00:37:57:27 - 00:38:03:05
George
so, so yeah, yeah.
00:38:03:08 - 00:38:17:10
Marty
I was looking at pictures of the city on Google Maps before, we hopped on here. It's a beautiful city. It looks a lot of stone. Stone, buildings, stone walkways, lot of fountains.
00:38:17:12 - 00:38:47:29
George
Yeah, yeah. No, the space in downtown is is amazing. Yeah. lots of pedestrian areas. Everything is close by. lots of cultural life. to, So there there's, like, the Roman, lots of Roman and tradition, remnants. So it's it's really like, like, oh, I have this once I wrote it down, we got, we got quite some Bitcoiners actually coming here.
00:38:47:29 - 00:39:16:04
George
We have like a couple of international Bitcoin conferences, and, I had, Knut, son home. You probably know him. You he's the author of, in 20 divided by 21 meeting. Like, like he said, this is the best city I have been to that I never heard of before. I went there, and I feel like that's that's how a lot of people feel about it.
00:39:16:06 - 00:39:18:06
George
Which is, Yeah.
00:39:18:08 - 00:39:38:09
Marty
I'm looking at pictures now. It looks like you guys have a beautiful amphitheater in the city as well. That's why I need to travel more. I stay, I stay put in the US quite, quite often. I'll be in Latvia, be up in the Baltics later this year. But I've never been in the Balkans.
00:39:38:12 - 00:39:39:28
George
for the honey badger or.
00:39:40:00 - 00:39:41:15
Marty
For the honey badger. Yeah.
00:39:41:17 - 00:39:44:06
George
Okay. So. So we might meet there.
00:39:44:08 - 00:40:09:02
Marty
Yeah. that because I was born generally in Bulgaria, being just north of Turkey, like our Bulgarians, awake to the value prop of bitcoin. to be honest, I'm a bit ignorant of the state of the Bulgarian economy itself. But obviously Turkey is your southern neighbor. They've had hyperinflationary events or people paying attention to that at all.
00:40:09:04 - 00:40:56:19
George
Kind of I mean, they, they go to buy cheap stuff. They're. Yeah, like that. I don't think they think too much about it. But but we've had our hyperinflationary episode to like, you know, to far away like 25 years ago. We got like, like brutal hyperinflation in 97. and, yeah, people lost almost everything, which is why there's, there's a quite good community here of early bitcoiners or, you know, even even people who get it now because they either remember or they've been told or or they're in generally the more skeptical, let's say, about, you know, the state, so there's that, but and, and there's a lot happening, actually, to be fair,
00:40:56:21 - 00:41:29:26
George
I'm quite happy with what's happening. You know, we just had, like last weekend, a conference organized here by by the biggest local YouTuber. we have over the last year, we have two, two events for bitcoin merchants. we have meetups in, in three, four of the largest cities every month. there is there is also, yeah, content creator, several several YouTubers out there that are quite active and have easily oriented or interviewed like, I mean, probably 20 or 30,000, if not more.
00:41:29:29 - 00:41:57:17
George
people. there's there's also like a decent amount of, companies. You know, if you look in the wider crypto space that that have been, that have been built here. So, so, so it's it's quite good. It's quite good. I'm relatively, to be fair, very happy, especially when I hear around the other countries, you know, in the Balkans, I don't think there's any other country that's have that so much stuff is happening.
00:41:57:19 - 00:42:34:09
George
And at the same time, however, all of it is, is still like very grassroots, right, which, which is good and bad. I mean, it's bad because it could be better, but but I think it's actually better, because it's, it's like stronger foundations for, for it to mature. And my hope, like quite frankly, is also that we do what we do and how we bring Bitcoin into the conversation from a very, again, non monetary directly perspective, no financial, just like say where a football club you know we embrace bitcoin in in so many ways.
00:42:34:11 - 00:43:06:11
George
especially with what now is happening in after you know I just came out of El Salvador man it's like the future there seriously in so many ways and and I want to create this connection between El Salvador, the future and us, the football club here. And as we, you know, as we show this, as we show why it makes sense and what what it it it, you know, it will do for the club and it, it will start doing for the club very soon.
00:43:06:13 - 00:43:30:14
George
that that other people more and more grassroots adoption happens here until it, hopefully becomes like, a topic that that many people care about and want to discuss because that like, really came to this point, like where I don't think it it like obviously it makes sense to argue to, you know, to, debate, to explain to people to educate.
00:43:30:17 - 00:43:58:06
George
But at the end of the day, you know, as, as a doer, as an entrepreneur, just like go and do stuff and, and then prove to people, you know, that, that what you're doing makes sense with, with your work, with the results, with the direction you're going and with time, others will see it. And that's kind of what I, I'm focused on and what, what what my team and, and I think for a lot of bitcoiners is just like, okay, don't just complain.
00:43:58:06 - 00:44:16:26
George
Don't just organize the good go go do things right. And then and then with time, these are going to get, going to get noticed in our case because we're really just like this, this public institution that tens of thousands of people look at. I think it's really an amazing opportunity to to drive this conversation.
00:44:16:28 - 00:44:40:22
Marty
You know, and it's it's funny hearing you. Describe it. Let's go to number one I agree. Like roll up your sleeves. Go do stuff with that and bring it back to like El Salvador. It's so funny to think that the country in the Balkans, in a country in Central America, or a football club in the from the Balkans, like I'm going to I'm going to go down to El Salvador and, and set up shop here.
00:44:40:22 - 00:44:47:22
Marty
So you guys officially incorporated part of the business, at least El Salvador as well. What was the reasoning behind that?
00:44:47:24 - 00:45:08:18
George
Yeah. Well, so, so like I said, a key part of the corporate strategy is now to decentralize the club ownership to enable our fans to enable bitcoiners, to enable anyone really in the world to be part of this. Right? Because we realized that for the success of this, we want to get people involved. We want to get people to have skin in the game, because that's when they care.
00:45:08:18 - 00:45:53:15
George
That's when they talk. That's when they become ambassadors. That's why they can also help in small and big ways. Right. and so, you know, we looked at how we could do this and how we could do this scalable, how we could do this internationally. And really, the. Well, that there's different ways, but I would say, like, not the only way has been the El Salvador part, but El Salvador has been the clear path for us in which we utilize, to to decentralize the club ownership to, to to get the opportunity for anyone to become involved of, of, to become part of this, of this journey is because Peter Salvador has,
00:45:53:17 - 00:46:18:22
George
has Bitcoin is legal tender, right? It's money. it's a currency. There's no capital gains taxes on it as it should be. Right. and then they just introduced last year, a new digital assets, a regulatory framework that is crystal clear, right? That that is there. That is okay. It's still early, but but but they've done this right.
00:46:18:22 - 00:46:51:07
George
They're set the rules according to which you can raise capital whether for debt, for equity. and also they have created, incentives for companies. to, to incorporate their and to issue their, well, digital securities there by essentially removing all taxes. So if you are, if you're a Salvadorian business. So you could in theory like we could in theory use our Bulgarian entity to raise capital.
00:46:51:09 - 00:47:15:04
George
in in Salvador. However, if we use a Salvadorian entity, and we raise capital again, through to any sort of security instrument like debt or equity, you become a digital asset. You sure? Locally there and you get exempt from, any taxes, right. and so it's economically it's a no brainer for, for you to think about, okay.
00:47:15:04 - 00:47:39:21
George
Like, why don't we just move the economics? Obviously, you know, we are real business, real people, based physically, you know, in, in a, in Bulgaria, in a broken country, but then economically, currently with this strategy that we have, and with the approach that El Salvador has this legal tender, clear regulatory framework. And then obviously there's the Bitcoin brand of the country two, right.
00:47:39:24 - 00:48:01:27
George
which, which is big. Right. Which is also like people, they're super open to be to be helping you, you know, in realizing your vision, then it's just like a no brainer for us to. Yeah, to make it like a focal point, a central point of our of our economic activity, at least for the foreseeable future.
00:48:01:29 - 00:48:26:29
George
and that's why I say it's they they literally live in the future and Bitcoin is money there. And supernormal and and I'm impressed. Seriously, I like one of the, you know, simple but still kind of crazy thinking in the traditional, old parts of the world. I met this this law firm there and the guys like, yeah, we just hold bitcoin on our treasury.
00:48:26:29 - 00:48:44:23
George
It's like our main treasury asset is and when we need to as the or when we need to pay somebody, I just convert some Bitcoin to USD and that's about it. And I'm like aren't you worried about volatility. He's like no but that's just part of it. You know Bitcoin is is the hardest money. So so we call Bitcoin.
00:48:44:23 - 00:49:05:27
George
You know it's that level of how much ahead there are because like you know in in Europe or probably in the States. like this is so so not traditional not accepted. You know, most people would think of you like you're you're totally crazy to do this. And there it's it's becoming like I wouldn't say it's like it's complete normality.
00:49:05:27 - 00:49:30:05
George
But but you have this, you have the setup, right? You have the, the, the landscape that is there. And then it's up to every individual business, to every individual person to grow up and to realize it and to make it kind of part of their strategy. But then also, as they have set up this framework, it also becomes attractive for, you know, us being anywhere else in the world.
00:49:30:08 - 00:49:55:09
George
And curiously, like at this point, you know, it seems like we're the first to be doing this because everything is quite new, right? This, this digital securities law is I'm not sure exactly when it was produced, but it was sometime later last year. so so it's relatively new and we seem to be the first to be doing this type of structure of like, like creating, holding entity there.
00:49:55:11 - 00:50:19:03
George
specifically for the Bitcoin strategy. but but I definitely think others will follow in the footsteps because again, it just makes economic sense if you're looking to raise capital and if Bitcoin is kind of significant part of your strategy, you know, like I mean there's no taxes there, right. And Bitcoin is money. Whatever. Where else would you go.
00:50:19:06 - 00:50:46:15
Marty
Yeah. And just the anecdote you shared of of the layer is like how we hold Bitcoin on our treasury. I think it highlights. And I think people really underestimate the the power of just a country, particularly its government putting support behind Bitcoin. I mean that was I mean you even mentioned before we hit record that you were a bit skeptical that that it would be as good as it is down there and you had to see it for yourself to really recognize that.
00:50:46:15 - 00:51:20:12
Marty
And I mean, it's been four, 5 or 4 short years since El Salvador came out and said, hey, we're we're going to make Bitcoin legal tender. they in the beginning, when they begin positioning that way, I think the law officially went into effect in 2021. But yeah, I mean, in three short years since the law went into effect, you already have lawyers who you would not have expected to be holding Bitcoin on their treasury, holding Bitcoin on their treasury and understanding why, and doing it in a way that makes sense, where it's like, all right, we need cash.
00:51:20:12 - 00:51:51:02
Marty
We'll we'll sell some bitcoin. But we're going to try and hold most of it for the long term. And I think many people underestimate the power of just support from the government. And what that does to give people peace of mind to to actually learn more about it, adopt it and incorporate it into their businesses, which is insane to think about if that were to be again to be applied, across the world in many different countries, like how quickly could all this happen?
00:51:51:04 - 00:52:14:06
George
Yeah. Well, in their case, like to me what is and again, I have this very interesting parallel kind of between between what we do and what El Salvador has done because like, you know, like there's this lawyer and there are these people that that are advanced. But let's be frank, you know, the vast majority of El Salvador, it's still not like adopted Bitcoin like most people still just work with dollars.
00:52:14:06 - 00:52:39:24
George
Right. but because they're not they're like you cannot force people into bitcoin, right. like it's just it's it's a free market. Right. for money is essentially free market especially like okay. People were concerned with with Bitcoin being legal tender but but practically like like being forcibly becoming legal tender. But practically it's just whoever wants it in El Salvador uses it.
00:52:39:27 - 00:53:21:28
George
and everybody else is just using for U.S. dollars. Right. but the important part is in what I seen in, for example, Kelly's strategies that, you know, he understands what are the short term needs of the of the local people. And he understands, how to address these. And at the same time, he's thinking longer term as to how to set the rails for, you know, the more visionary people, for the more entrepreneurial, for the more productive, both within El Salvador but also internationally, to go there and to build stuff there so that over the medium and long term, they can start reaping the benefits that, you know, the vast majority of
00:53:21:28 - 00:53:59:03
George
people are not thinking about or are not realizing early on. So in the case of Bukele, he, you know, the biggest problem and the reason why people love him so much is because he solved crime. And it's absolutely astounding when you talk to any old types of people they're from, you know, a taxi driver to people in the hotel to, like, like literally everybody there is thinks he's a miracle, you know, from entrepreneurs, also Salvadorans who have come from us moved back to, to the country to work there because 3 or 4 years ago they were like, you couldn't walk on the street because of the gangs, because of of the extreme level
00:53:59:03 - 00:54:19:00
George
of, danger that was there. And fast forward 3 or 4 years, that's solved. And that's why people love him, not because of his Bitcoin thing. They love him because of that. But he realizes this is important, right. And so that's why he focused on this. In the meantime he's working on bitcoin and some law firms are adopting it.
00:54:19:00 - 00:54:44:06
George
And we're going there. You know other entrepreneurs and productive productive people are moving there so that, you know, this next level of leveling up to the country can can happen. And it's kind of interesting because it's, as I, as I hear and see what's happening there, it's kind of similar. I would like to think as to what is happening within our club because, you know, within our club, what what most people care about is winning on the field, right?
00:54:44:12 - 00:55:04:05
George
That's the most important. And so, you know, our, our president has worked a lot to attract the right people to build the right team. So we start working on the field. And so this year, you know, we won the Cup, okay. We started adopting Bitcoin. We started doing things with Bitcoin. We've done a lot to kind of set the groundwork.
00:55:04:07 - 00:55:32:26
George
so that although people don't see it, you know, in our eyes in our strategy, Bitcoin can play a huge role in really leveling up the club like next year or the year after, three, four and many more years down the line. So I think that there's still this opportunity for all kinds of businesses and countries and in general to be like, like you have to be cognizant what are the short term pains and most what people care mostly about, address those.
00:55:32:26 - 00:55:47:22
George
But in the meantime, have your Bitcoin strategy because that's kind of the medium to long term. yeah. Like to that that can really supercharge, all the other good things that, that, that you're doing.
00:55:47:24 - 00:56:14:12
Marty
And again, bring the Bitcoin standard and time preference back into it when you have the idea and the implementation of Bitcoin on your balance sheet as a treasury asset that anchors your long term vision, it's like, okay, if we have Bitcoin on this balance sheet, we can expect in four years that it'll be worth a lot more and we'll be able to do a lot more with the value that has built up in our Bitcoin treasury.
00:56:14:14 - 00:56:26:23
Marty
but in the meantime, there's obviously time between now and then. And so we got to work hard to make sure that it's worthwhile to, to spend that Bitcoin in the future. So we have to get everything right. We have to get the club.
00:56:26:23 - 00:56:27:06
George
Yeah.
00:56:27:10 - 00:56:55:07
Marty
Winning games. Get it back to game profitable get more bitcoin. And so it is crazy how something as simple as having Bitcoin on your treasury as this long term planning anchor that allows you to really focus on shorter term medium term goals that that will increase the value of the club and the quality of the club is just really interesting socially, psychologically.
00:56:55:09 - 00:57:01:09
Marty
Helme. having hard money, just really reorient how you approach things.
00:57:01:11 - 00:57:24:24
George
Yeah, right. No, but that's also kind of frankly, that's the thing I most dislike about Fiat. I mean, dislike is like a soft word. It's just that how many people are focused on the today and the now. And I see this move on across the club. Right. To be fair, even today, because it's, you know, other people and stuff, which is normal, right?
00:57:24:24 - 00:57:51:23
George
I get it is just unfortunately, it's how the whole society, what it's all about today, it's about the very next day, you know, it's not about thinking long term. It's kind of the reason also why why all of these large other football clubs or clubs in general, they're not really thought of Bitcoin like, because you have to understand, you have to see it in order to put in the work because we haven't we've got many financial benefits, you know, so far.
00:57:51:24 - 00:58:19:22
George
Right. but but other clubs, you know, go for the easy thing. They go for all, let's see, show a fan token and let's show it to our friends, which, okay, you're making some short term revenues, but in the grand scheme of things, it's it's just a waste of time and energy because, okay, you've milked literally some revenue from your loyal fan base one time.
00:58:19:25 - 00:58:45:28
George
There's not going to be like, a second time, they've lost some money essentially because fan of and tokens like 50, 60, 80, 80 jobs or so have you should find tokens and not just fan tokens. There's all all these other type of examples in our industry of just short term thinking. Because again, like when you're in this fiat world, you're constantly thinking of how to maximize revenues as quickly as possible, as short as possible.
00:58:46:00 - 00:59:09:11
George
And then this is just it just breaks, breaks incentives, breaks the possibility to yeah. For you to have a vision to build to to to think how what can we do, you know, to really level up this club over three, four, five years. and and it's, it's true across society, across literally everything we.
00:59:09:13 - 00:59:27:11
Marty
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've seen it personally in my own life and the businesses that I run. Now that you're talking about El Salvador at my couch, I go set up a holding company in El Salvador through the, tech tax benefits down there. But with all this in mind, like, let's talk about the players a bit, right?
00:59:27:18 - 00:59:49:18
Marty
Obviously the players missed important part of the club. They are what can actually get the club winning and back on track to begin climbing the ranks within the clubs in Europe. and they also trend younger, younger individuals who. Yeah, many would assume are more receptive or understanding of Bitcoin due to the fact that they grew up in the digital age.
00:59:49:23 - 01:00:00:07
Marty
Are any of them hardcore bitcoiners? Anybody getting or asking to get paid in Bitcoin? do they understand it?
01:00:00:10 - 01:00:28:08
George
I wouldn't say we're there yet. but I again, because like I said earlier, for us, a lot of the things that we do is about timing. And when we do it right, so that the time for this can come literally. So quite, quite next week, as we're speaking, I have, you know, I have, quite some meeting scheduled with, with individual players, with some key staff there, just to start getting, people on board.
01:00:28:08 - 01:00:49:09
George
So we will, we've already, shared that we will be making educational sessions to players. I'll be doing such. But frankly, like, you know, to people who are listening, if there's people who are excited about it, they people want to visit, Bulgaria if they want to, like, also like come talk to to our players and sports team.
01:00:49:11 - 01:01:14:17
George
absolutely. You know, you are you're welcome to come and and will facilitate this because we see this getting the players on board. now is kind of the right time for us to do it because again, like season is very, very heavy, very complicated. Now we're like off season there. There's just started training training like pre training sessions.
01:01:14:20 - 01:01:35:25
George
Right. They they have their training camp. So so now it's kind of the right time. We have identified for, for me to next, next week and to like really, really focus individually as well as as a group on many of these, these key key stakeholders because as they again, inevitably, I think I don't expect all of the players to get it from from the get go.
01:01:35:28 - 01:01:58:22
George
but but I, I have, you know, I've already had talks, you know, with, with, with, with quite some. So we're getting there again. It's a process not, not pushy but but as we get there inevitably because again number go up technology always helps build our case. And that's been the case. That would likely be the case, you know, in the coming weeks and months.
01:01:58:25 - 01:02:23:03
George
as we, as we get them on board, this is where the really interesting and impactful work starts, of, of, or follows of, of everything we've been doing because this is what the fans look up to, right? This is what other players also look up to. And so for us it is very important because players there like, you know, I mean you can call them influencer influencers in a way, right?
01:02:23:05 - 01:02:53:03
George
People people look at them. They're they're role models. They're leaders to to people, within within our community. But I would like to I would like to think that, because of our position, because of the branding, because of the approach and, and the narrative of everything we've been building, these players are going to have significantly more reach, not just out within our community, but also outside, as, as they start, you know, doing Bitcoin related things.
01:02:53:05 - 01:03:20:11
George
And then, you know, what they do, it's which is the fans, what they do, which is other players. I think it's just a question of time before other clubs and players are doing the same, which for me is also the exciting part as to how we accelerate kind of this, this adoption of Bitcoin from a non purely financial angle or still financial, but like like like the origin is, is this this entertainment is this sports level.
01:03:20:13 - 01:03:50:09
George
So so so if anyone listening is passionate about sports is passionate about. Yeah. Helping athletes realize, you know, what Bitcoin could do for, for their careers, for their lives. Because a lot of these guys. Right. They, they could make quite some money in their prime age. Some of them, you know, are able then to convert to into other roles within the sport after their professional careers.
01:03:50:09 - 01:04:13:07
George
But but many don't write many don't. And and we want to outside of just being successful as a club and I think we can become even more successful if we, if we bring this culture, and this understanding as to, what Bitcoin can do for, for, for these athletes individually. So please, please don't hesitate to, to reach out.
01:04:13:09 - 01:04:34:08
George
come visit for a game. Come visit. the city, which, as we said, is worthwhile and, and if you have, you know, some something to say, something good to say if you have particularly, you know, experience in, in this field, we would love to facilitate, such, such type of, conversations.
01:04:34:10 - 01:05:05:11
Marty
Looks like I got to make a pilgrimage to Bulgaria, start to go to Bulgaria and El Salvador. Two places I have not been yet, but, I mean, we've there was a big conversation here in the States, obviously, with Russell Coon, Saquon Barkley, a couple others in the NFL, big making big announcements, in 2020, 2021 that they were going to accept part of their pay in bitcoin and hold that, but you think for these athletes are young, they have relatively short careers.
01:05:05:11 - 01:05:27:28
Marty
If you're comparing it to somebody who goes to college, gets a degree and gets into a corporate gig, they're, they're typically going to be at the same place or within the same industry doing the same thing for, for many decades. And these athletes have a short period of time in which their bodies are capable of performing at the level necessary to compete at the professional level.
01:05:27:28 - 01:06:01:26
Marty
And they're literally putting their bodies on the line. And, that was something that really stuck with me, particularly from Russell Okun when he was describing, like how beat up his body got in the NFL. And you're, you're literally putting your body on the line and getting paid and in fear. That's debasing, in somewhat disrespecting the sacrifices you made, the physical sacrifices you made, and to think, like pairing this hard money with the the stress that that athletes put on their bodies to do what they do.
01:06:01:27 - 01:06:16:27
Marty
And it just makes a lot of sense intuitively, if were going to go through all that, training, playing, getting nicked up, you might, might as well be saving and extracting the most value from that time spent putting your body on the line.
01:06:16:29 - 01:06:19:21
George
Yeah. If you can make it work.
01:06:19:21 - 01:07:00:01
Marty
Well, make it worthwhile. And I want to make sure that your weekend in Prague is is worthwhile. So I don't want to hold you up. I know it's, probably happy hour there right now. People congregating for drinks around the conference. but, George, it's been an incredible conversation. I'm really excited for what you're doing about have. And, I'll be following along and, I'm sure, there will be games played here in the States once you start streaming internationally, there'll be there'll be meetups at public to watch both of, maybe we'll get some started down in Austin to make sure that we're watching it in the comments.
01:07:00:01 - 01:07:03:20
Marty
When the games are on this fall, for sure.
01:07:03:23 - 01:07:09:10
George
Would love to do that and see that happening. Yeah. Hi, George.
01:07:09:12 - 01:07:16:18
Marty
We're, Where can I find out about you? What you guys are doing about tap? How can they help?
01:07:16:20 - 01:07:40:26
George
Sure. so I think the go to place. When is this coming out? This Friday. Friday. Okay. Yeah, the go to place by then should be, I would like to say both. If not, as we we're creating it as we speak and should be like, this is going to be the, homepage of our, well, specifically the El Salvador entity.
01:07:40:28 - 01:08:07:20
George
Right. And, and it's specifically for this type of audience. This will be the easiest way. From there, you can find links to our Twitter, our Noster. We've also adopted Noster, and it's been pretty exciting as the first sports club being being there, playing with it, and looking to do more things with it. So both of is is the place, this is also where, where you can see a lot of the highlights of the big things that we have happening.
01:08:07:20 - 01:08:34:22
George
This is where you can keep in touch with the really, really exciting, fun stuff that is coming up. This is where, you know, if you're interested, like I mentioned, to, to become part of this journey as a co-owner, if you are, looking to get exposure to our audience as a, as a sponsor, as a partner, board of SB and, we look forward to doing great things together.
01:08:34:25 - 01:08:55:14
Marty
Awesome. And I look forward to watching you guys do great things. And then watching Bo TEF play later this fall. Maybe the summer in the U. Maybe I'll, I may I hop on the Europa League, start watching games this summer? George, tell everybody in Prague I said, what's up? Enjoy your time. Go enjoy some, some incredible beers.
01:08:55:16 - 01:08:59:16
George
I will for sure. All right. My team.
01:08:59:18 - 01:09:02:10
Marty
Peace of love for thank you to K.
