What is XBTO, Inter Miami’s jersey sponsor?

The company is about to be put in the spotlight as Lionel Messi will be wearing the Inter Miami shirt in the near future.

Joe Brennanj4brennanUpdate: Jul 12th, 2023 07:06 EDT

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While everyone will be looking at the back, with the soon-to-be number 10 of Inter Miami, Lionel Messi, set to test himself in MLS, the front of the pink shirt will also have a new audience watching every move made. The Inter Miami intertwining herons will now be associated with the Argentine, as is the Adidas logo, from which Messi is taking some of the cut from the whopping deal between all parties involved.

But below Messi’s new club badge sits a logo. On first glance, it’s quite a slim, trimmed-down effort that does not get in the way of the shirt, but is intriguing in its existence nevertheless. XBTO: four letters that don’t make up a word and don’t mean much on their own either, are about to get a level of exposure like never before.

Who are XBTO? What do they do? Well, here’s everything you need to know…

Interesting day so far. More details to come 🔥 pic.twitter.com/AAfoT9w5Sy

— Philippe Bekhazi | XBTO (@philippebek) June 7, 2023

What is XBTO?

XBTO was founded in 2015 as a pioneer in providing institutional market making to major global trading platforms. Since then, XBTO has expanded its reach to include a diverse set of offerings across multiple business lines from institutional trading, credit, asset management, venture capital to mining solutions.

This is the official explanation from the XBTO website, which uses the power of the thesaurus to explain that they are a cryptocurrency finance management company. They don’t have their own currency, so you won’t be able to buy MessiCoin just yet, but they help companies to manage their crypto-finance. It’s all quite David Brent until you scroll down their web page and find a huge Inter Miami shirt pops up out of nowhere.

There is no link to explain the deal or relationship between the two parties, except for a small mention on a company timeline that begins in 2006 and ends in September 2021 with the words “XBTO becomes the main corporate and jersey sponsor for Inter Miami CF, Miami’s Major League Soccer team co-owned by David Beckham and Jorge Mas”.

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Messimania has hit the US and fans are already waiting outside the stadium ahead of his presentation.CHANDAN KHANNAAFP

Who owns XBTO?

Philippe Bekhazi is the founder and co-owner of XBTO, with his LinkedIn page saying that the French and German speaker also helps with environmental problems, human rights issues, disaster and humanitarian relief and poverty alleviation. He is an active Tweeter on the now-ruined social media site, Twitter, with one of his posts in July to Elon Musk himself saying “If you open a Tesla factory, I’ll open a crypto factory”.

Who are Inter Miami’s other sponsors?

Autonation is next on the list of partners listed by the club. The automotive retailer has been going since 1996 and is based in Fort Lauderdale, where the Inter Miami stadium is located. Quite the entrepreneur, Wayne Huizenga founded the company and he was also the owner and co-owner of Blockbuster Video, the Miami Dolphins, Florida Panthers and Florida Marlins.