The Pitch #2 - Yusuf Abdul-Ali, Founder of The Bitcoin Classic on bringing his tournament to Africa with FAMBUL Global

This December, a basketball tournament with a blockchain twist will make its international debut on African soil. The Bitcoin Classic, founded in 2021 to merge elite sport with Bitcoin-driven financial empowerment, will host back-to-back tournaments in Nairobi, Kenya, and Accra, Ghana. At the same time, FAMBUL Global will lead curated group travel experiences around the events, connecting fans not only to the action on court, but to cultural touchpoints across East and West Africa. Together, the two organisations are betting on a new intersection: sport as a pathway to financial literacy, and tourism as a bridge to a deeper Pan-African connection.

Basketball as a gateway to Bitcoin

The Bitcoin Classic started as an experiment by founder Yusuf Abdul-Ali, who wanted to see if Bitcoin could be part of sports after he invested in it. “I wanted to create an event around basketball,” he said. He held a tournament, paid the winners in Bitcoin, and wondered if they would like it.

The response was surprising. What began as three tournaments in Connecticut, Boston, and Miami grew to seven locations across the United States with support from Cash App. Grassroots players were drawn to the mix of strong competition and new financial tools.

However, getting people to accept Bitcoin took time. “You have to educate them before the tournament. They ask for cash. But that’s not what we do here.”Workshops and tutorials are important to the experience, and the Africa tour will focus on education rather than profit.While merchandise and ticket sales drive events in the U.S., the tournaments in Kenya and Ghana will prioritise spreading Bitcoin awareness and networking in the basketball community.

Africa is a key focus because it is one of the fastest-growing regions for crypto adoption. Countries like Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya rank high globally. Sub-Saharan Africa recorded over $125 billion in on-chain crypto value last year, mostly from everyday uses like payments and remittances. Abdul-Ali sees that interest already exists. “When you do the research, Africa has been adopting it. And in basketball, the talent is incredible, among the highest anywhere in the world.” The tour’s success will not just be about ticket sales and fan turnout. It will also depend on building relationships with local groups, the number of players who start using Bitcoin wallets, and the demand from other African markets.

In Accra, The Bitcoin Classic will be a major event at the Africa Basketball Festival, which attracts over 5,000 fans for basketball, music, fashion, and entertainment. In Nairobi, the tournament will work with Street League Africa to host a 5-on-5 competition, slam-dunk contest, three-point shootout, and youth clinic, along with Bitcoin education workshops for local players.

“The goal is to build with what already exists,” Abdul-Ali explains. “We’re there to support what local organisations are doing.”

The rise of sports-powered tourism

Standing alongside this expansion is FAMBUL Global, the official travel partner enabling fans to experience both tournaments through curated nine-night itineraries. The trips combine sport, cultural immersion and nightlife, offering travellers the chance to attend games while also exploring safari experiences in Kenya and West Africa’s diaspora-driven nightlife scene in Ghana.

For co-founder Simone Brown, the initiative is part of a larger philosophy. “FAMBUL Global is a platform for experiences in Africa. We want to make it easy for the diaspora and global travellers to connect, but in ways that are meaningful,” she says. Rather than traditional packaged tourism, the company is focused on building genuine connections with the place, drawing from local history, culture and lived experience. Fans can customise their journeys through three tracks: sport, culture and nightlife.

Sports-powered travel is still largely untapped in the African tourism market, and that, for Brown, signals opportunity.While the global sports-tourism market is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, Africa captures only a fraction of that value. The continent’s overall sports economy is currently estimated at around US$12 billion, with projections to reach approximately US$20 billion by 2035 as sponsorship, events and fan-driven travel scale.

“Most diaspora travel focuses on luxury or ancestry. Not many people are building trips around sporting events,” Brown explains. While the short planning window meant no travel packages were sold for the 2025 edition, the company is already designing a bigger 2025/26 calendar with itineraries built around The Bitcoin Classic tournaments and Sierra Leone’s Tour de Lunsar cycling race.

A model to watch

The Bitcoin Classic Africa Tour could change how sports and tourism work in Africa. It explores two areas: sports that use blockchain technology and travel that focuses on sports. This basketball event will provide new financial options, while travel will enhance cultural and economic involvement.

Both Abdul-Ali and Brown emphasise the importance of connection. They aim to link players with digital financial systems and connect travellers to Africa in meaningful ways. Their vision goes beyond just one tournament.

If this initiative succeeds, it could set a new standard for how sports engage African audiences. Athletes could gain financial independence, fans might connect to the continent through shared interests, and local organisations could receive global support without being overlooked.

Should this initiative prove successful, it promises to redefine athlete engagement with African audiences. The benefits are far-reaching: athletes could achieve financial autonomy, fans would find a new way to connect with the continent through shared passions, and local organizations could secure global backing without being marginalized.