Bedford FC: Bitcoin podcaster says the club is now global

Peter McCormack said the people who owned Bitcoin around the world were interested in Bedford FC

A Bitcoin investor and podcaster who bought a 10th-tier footbal club said he had attracted an "international audience" and global investors.

Peter McCormack bought Bedford FC last month and now streams their games live online.

Since he had taken over, the club had raised £750,000 in sponsorship, he said.

Mr McCormack said Bitcoin owners "get behind a project and this is a team they want to support".

The club, which will be renamed Real Bedford for next season, play in Spartan South Midlands Football League Division One.

Neighbouring Bedford Town FC play two tiers higher in the Southern League Division One Central, while the nearest league club is MK Dons, about 17 miles (28km) away.

Bedford FC's games are streamed online and promoted through social media

Mr McCormack said: "We're a town of 174,000 people that doesn't have a league club, yet Burnley has a population of 90,000 people and they've got a Premier League club, so we can support league football.

"Starting so low it gives us a chance to shape a club how we want; how we want to build a team."

But he said his main reason for investing was that Bedford was his home town, saying: "I travel the world with my work but I always come home and I want something good for the town."

• Watford shirt sponsor deal paid in cryptocurrency

• Ed Sheeran to sponsor Ipswich Town's shirts

• Tom Cruise helps club meet goal with signed shirts

Mr McCormack hosts one of the biggest Bitcoin podcasts in the world, What Bitcoin Did, with more than 1,000,000 downloads a month

Mr McCormack said his global audience had already led to supporter groups forming in the US, Europe, Africa and Australia.

"We are commercially successful already in four weeks. We've done £750,000 in sponsorship, we haven't even started selling shirts and merchandise and this is a sustainable long-term model to build a club here and to build grassroots football," he said.

"I can go to people all round the world, the 150 million people who own Bitcoin... and get them to stream into a game, I can get them to buy a shirt, I can get them to make their pilgrimage to come here.

"We've got that access to an international audience of supporters, an international audience of sponsors, and that gives us a revenue model where we can go and attack the Football League."

The nearest league club to Bedford is MK Dons, with the Championship's Luton Town a close second

It has not been all straightforward since the takeover with manager Jason Goldman and assistant Martin Wells quitting the club just days afterwards.

"Despite the exciting plans ahead, my coaching team and I feel that our positions have been made untenable by those now running the football club," Goldman said in a statement.

Kieran Maguire, football finance lecturer at University of Liverpool, said the approach by Mr McCormack was "very innovative".

"There's a little bit of reservation the deal to take over won't be finalised until the end of the season, but utilising a broader interest in the club to monetise the link between Bitcoin and a smaller club is certainly unique.

"There's a lot of hype and a lot of caution about cryptocurrency but Bitcoin seems to be the leader in the pack."