How Bitcoin netted Peter McCormack's childhood dream to buy a soccer team

British Bitcoin podcaster Peter McCormack acquired his local football, sorry, soccer club, Bedford FC in December 2021. Combining his loves for bitcoin and football, he renamed the club Real Bedford and onboarded bitcoin friendly sponsors including Gemini and Casa. Equipped with a bitcoin treasury and supported by the global consortium of more than 150 million Bitcoin hodlers, McCormack explains the team aspires to reach the Premier League, the pinnacle of English football league excellence. Cointelegraph visited the club on the first match of the 2022 season to watch a game, pay for pints, burgers and even football shirts with bitcoin and engage in a light hearted post match interview with McCormack.

I wanted to introduce a speed round. So it's quick questions. Yeah. And I've made them personal. To you or to both. Bedford or to bitcoin. Okay. You'll see a bit of a theme going throughout, but basically I'm going to give you three seconds to answer each question. You know, maybe five if you really have to think about it. Are you ready?

I'm ready.

So number one, you got to choose one here. Bedford to win the league this year or Tottenham Hotspur to be relegated.

Bedford to win the league.

Bitcoin above or sub.30k by December 31st.

Sub.

Big night out in Las Vegas or the Rose still closed. It's a local pub.

Rose still closed. How do you know that? Did my son tell you?

No.

My friends are in bed. I've done Rose till close a few times.

Do you know why that's funny? It's like I used to go to the Rose as a kid.

Okay.

My son's now 18. He goes there and he invited me down. He's like, come on, dad. Rose still close. I was like, come on, you can't say that to me.

Yeah.

Rose still closed.

Yeah. So I'm probably the generation between, you know, your son and.

I mean, I'm saying that proud. To be honest, I'd much rather be in Vegas. I'm too old for the Rose. I'd look creepy in there, I bet.

Okay. If you could choose which country would adopt bitcoin as legal tender next.

That's a great question. America.

Nice. Choose one. A good podcast or a good audiobook.

Good audiobook.

Choose your fighter. Nick Carter or Corey Klipsting?

What are they fighting for? They're both my friends.

I know. This is why it's such a tricky one.

Yeah. Do you know what? I'm gonna pick Nick Carter. But I'm gonna explain it.

I wanna know what arena you're seeing them fighting in as well.

It's just Corey doesn't. You know, Corey's fine at the moment.

This could be Tekken. This could be a game of Mario Kart. This could be.

Yeah. I mean, I don't think Cory needs help. I pick Nick because Corey's killing everyone.

I like what you think there. Okay, nice. Cointelegraph or coindesk?

Oh, Coin Telegraph. Come on, man.

Nice.

Nice. I just thought in response to that last question.

Cointelegrapher here.

Yeah, that's. Oh. Coindesk not visited.

Yeah. Where the F are you, Barry? Come on.

Good. Bedford or Texas?

Bedford.

Okay. Wow, you really do like Bedford. It's coming through. Okay, finish the phrase here. I'm going to test your sort of bitcoin or meme knowledge. So have fun staying blank.

Poor.

There is no blank.

Best second.

You will own nothing and you will be blank.

Happy.

Stay blank. Stacks, ads.

Stay humble. Stacks, ads.

Very good. Okay, cool. And this is a biology question which is probably not going to make the cut for the YouTube video. So one sperm can. Contains 37 megabytes of DNA information.

Okay.

Which database has more? One ejaculation or the entirety of the bitcoin network?

Well, so the entirety of the bitcoin network is about. We have about 400 gigabyte now. And one sperm has. I mean, and there's got to be a lot of. It's probably got to be the sperm because there'll be loads in there.

Nice. Yeah.

Easy. Probably. Absolutely not even close.

Do you want the. Do you want the stats? Yeah. I mean, my note this morning, about 580 gigabytes, the Bitcoin network. And one ejaculate is 15,875 gigabytes of DNA information.

Not even close.

Which is about 130 MacBook Pros.

Wow.

You know, to visualize it. Yeah. There you go.

That's a weird question. I like it. That should make it.

Yeah. Bit off the wall. Is there anything else? You. Who do you support in the Premier League in football? Man United, for my sins.

Okay, Man United to win the league or Bedford to get in the Premier League.

Oh, that's. I mean, Man United want loads. Can you imagine Bedford getting in the Premier League?

Hilarious.

Is that seven years away or nine? Nine. Okay, six leagues.

I said 10. I said one year. We won't go up.

What I'm looking forward to is Bedford playing Oxford City, because that'll be like the bitcoin standoff.

I think we're going to play in the friendly next season.

No way. Oh, like a bitcoin.

Yeah.

We got to do it.

We got to do it.

So how do you feel? First game of the season, 3 nil. It's like post match interview.

I love it. I know. God. Real mixed feelings. Like relieved we won. Relieved because. Because you've put so much into it. You just want three points. So proud of the team for the amazing performance they put in and everything our manager Rob's done. He's worked so hard over the summer. And then everyone behind the scenes that's made this happen. If you were here six months ago, you would have seen the different boardings. The pitch wasn't great. We put in this irrigation system that has made this pitch amazing to play on. And we've sorted out the changing rooms and we've put all the signage up and we've organized the F and B. We've put so much into it. And to see it all come together, yeah, it's really cool. And yeah, I'm really proud and just grateful to everyone who's got involved.

Yeah. I mean, the first two goals within the first 10 minutes, it was very confident.

Five minutes, was it?

First five minutes?

Yeah. I mean, Kevin, did you see that first goal?

Yeah. You actually pinged it in from the outside of the box.

I can't wait to see the highlights later.

But of course, could you stream it to the Pointers around the world?

So that was a perfect start. That was like. And then another one or five minutes, you're like, okay, relax now. Now.

Yeah.

And then you start thinking, if they get one, what happens? But. But no, honestly, I'm happy and relieved and just now it's. It's this funny thing now it's like all I'm thinking about is next Saturday, I bet. Let's go again. Yeah, let's go again.

Lfg. So what was the original vision? Can you remind people of when this all came about? Why did you want to buy a.

Football club, of all things, and make.

It, you know, the B for Bedford obviously rings true there. What was bitcoin in it as well?

Yeah, it's good question. I mean, look, my dad would tell you this. Ever since I was a little kid, I always said I wanted to buy Bedford. I wanted to buy Bedford Town next door. That's a local team. But I always felt like our town could support a team in the Football league. People who don't understand English football. There's four professional divisions. The Premier League championship, League One, League Two. We have a population of 174,000 people here. And there are teams with smaller. There are towns with less people who've been in the Premier League. So I think our town can support league football. My goal was to buy a team and get them in the league. Bedford Town next door are doing really well, having a good shot of it. They're up to step three. We're step six, six promotions away. I've wound people up and said, we're going to get the Premier League, but the truth is, I want to bring league football. I didn't ever know how I could do it. And then with my podcast and bitcoin, I suddenly have access to two important things. Sponsors who will invest the money to allow us to do everything we've done here, and then followers who follow my podcast who support it. So we had a bunch of bitcoiners here today, bunch online, watching it, people who've bought shirts and merchandise. And so that. That was the nucleus of being able to do this. And, yeah, look, it's. Yeah, it's really cool.

And what about the bear market? Has that not posed any challenges to managing a football club that is running with bitcoin?

I mean, our biggest challenge is our sponsors are bitcoin companies. We are in a good position because they pay very good money to sponsor this, and we've created some exposure for them. At some point towards the end of the season, I need to go back to them, say, 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. And we don't know what these companies will have the money to do that. I mean, if it's still in a bear market, perhaps not. And that's one of the challenges of this. But, yeah, we'll deal with that then. Right now, we've got to go win the league.