U.S. National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) players are set to miss promised payouts as part of a deal with crypto broker Voyager after the firm went bankrupt.

The league told the players they could miss the funds they were promised as part of the sponsorship deal, Sportico announced Monday.

The partnership, announcement in December last year, was one of the largest in NWSL history and was to be a multi-year deal.

As part of the tie-up, the league would receive half of the payout in cash, while players would receive the other half in the form of crypto. Each athlete was to receive a Voyager account to receive deposits and create their own crypto wallets.

But the accounts were never fed, Sportico reported, citing multiple sources familiar with the situation.

Now with Voyager having filed for bankruptcy in early July, the future of these player payments looks uncertain.

In a statement released to the press, the NSWL said: “The Player Fund was always intended to be distributed to accounts at Voyager in cryptocurrency, for the purpose of educating players about investing in the space. crypto. As such, there was always a risk regarding the volatility of the cryptocurrency market.

It is understood that there is no impact on players’ base salaries as a result of Voyager’s bankruptcy, the effects being limited to the promised benefits of the sponsorship deal.

Decrypt contacted the NWSL and Voyager for comment.

Voyager, NWSL deal was a ‘bad deal’

Former professional soccer player Haley Carter responded to the news by calling the deal a “bad deal”.

“NWSL players are made vulnerable by the NWSL to a losing scheme that anyone who has followed the markets and investment platforms literally recognizes as a losing scheme is very much on the mark of the NWSL,” she said. . wrote on Twitter. “We all knew this was coming and it’s still an incredible disappointment.”

She added that while there was no impact on player salaries, “partnering with Voyager and presenting it as good business is still bad business.”

The news will likely raise further concerns about the numerous sports sponsorship deals signed by cryptocurrency companies in recent years.

Crypto companies spent a total of $130 million on the NBA’s only sponsorship deals last season, while this year’s Super Bowl featured a record number of crypto ads.

Football has also been a major target area for platforms seeking to entice sports fans into becoming customers. More recently, FC Barcelona football club announced a multimillion-euro partnership with the blockchain-based sports fan app Socios.com.