Real Bedford is a soccer team with a difference. It’s not only the pride of its hometown in North London but also a symbol of the Bitcoin (BTC) community. The team is owned by Peter McCormack, a well-known Bitcoin podcaster and enthusiast, who bought the club in 2021 and rebranded it with a Bitcoin logo and a founding block height: 712,003.

McCormack’s goal is to take Real Bedford to the Premier League, the world’s most popular soccer league and spread the word about Bitcoin along the way. He has secured half a million dollars in sponsorship from crypto companies for the first year and has invited Bitcoin influencers and fans from around the world to attend the games and host meet-ups.

Real Bedford has already achieved its first success by winning the United Kingdom’s South Midlands League for the 2023 season. The team attracted a record crowd of 327 people for its last home game, some of whom had traveled thousands of miles to witness the historic moment. McCormack told Cointelegraph that he was thrilled by the support and the recognition:

“It’s an underdog story. The thing is, it’s got more meaning now because there’s coming out and saying ‘Yeah, I’m going to buy a football team — making a Bitcoin team and getting it in the Premier League.’ And everyone’s like, ‘Yeah, shut up you w*nker.’ But now, I’ve done the first promotion.”

McCormack also said that Real Bedford is not his team, but the team of the Bitcoin community: “We’re the Bitcoin club. But as Bitcoin is, we’re a community. So this is our team. And if we go up, everyone’s going to be like, Yeah, that’s our team!”

However, McCormack is careful not to push Bitcoin onto his local town, which he said is deprived and may not benefit from speculating on the volatile digital currency. He said he prefers to let people discover Bitcoin on their own terms, and hopes that his team can inspire them with its performance and passion.

Real Bedford is a unique experiment that combines soccer and Bitcoin in a novel way. It’s a story that has captured the attention of both mainstream media and crypto enthusiasts. Whether it can reach the Premier League or not remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: Real Bedford is putting Bitcoin on the map.