From El Salvador to Bulgaria: Can Bitcoin Fix Football? | George Manolov of Botev Plovdiv

Live from Bitcoin Beach in El Zonte, El Salvador, I sit down with George Manolov, the visionary behind Botev Plovdiv’s integration of Bitcoin. In this episode, we explore how this historic Bulgarian football club is making El Salvador its economic center due to the country’s favorable Bitcoin regulations.

George explains the strategic benefits of El Salvador's legal framework, including zero capital gains taxes on Bitcoin, and how it aligns with their goal to decentralize ownership and attract international investors. We delve into the potential of Bitcoin as the global reserve currency and why positioning businesses to leverage the Bitcoin network is crucial.

We also discuss the club's rich history, recent successes, and ambitions in European competitions. George shares how Botev Plovdiv is engaging fans and players with Bitcoin, from setting up BTC payment options to seeking international sponsorships.

Tune in to hear how Bitcoin is transforming businesses and communities. Whether you’re a football fan or a Bitcoin enthusiast, this episode offers insights into the future of sports and finance.

- Mike


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Follow the Botev Plovdiv FC Team:
X: https://x.com/botev_en
https://botevplovdiv.bg/
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Connect with George Manolov:
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Browse through this quick guide to learn more about the episode:
00:00:00 - Introduction
00:02:19 - How Can Bitcoin Transform Traditional Businesses?  
00:04:36 - What Are the Advantages of Selling Equity in a Football Club?  
00:05:17 - What Is the History of Botev Plovdiv Football Club?  
00:06:19 - How Does a Modern Stadium Affect a Football Club's Performance?  
00:07:16 - Why Is Fan Engagement Crucial for a Football Club's Success?  
00:11:06 - How Do European Competitions Create Business Opportunities for Football Clubs?  
00:15:24 - How Did George Manolov Begin His Journey with Bitcoin?  
00:27:19 - How to Attract Sponsorships for a Bitcoin-Focused Sports Team?  
00:37:26 - Why Establish a Holding Company in El Salvador for a Sports Team?  
00:57:17 - What's Next for Botev Plovdiv's Bitcoin Strategy?

Live From Bitcoin Beach

Transcript

George Manolov  
Economically for us to maximize kind of the result for our shareholders, it made the most sense to center our, to make El Salvador the center of our economic activity right? Now we're not, we're still like a real business. And then, you know, the majority of everything is happening out there in Bulgaria, right, with the Bulgarian and with the physical entity. You know, we, the team on the ground. However, the the economic center that we are planning to, to execute is to be here in El Salvador as the first step. And then because of yeah, because of just like this distant relative of, of Bitcoin in our strategy. And I think it looks like we're the first steps are doing exactly the setup. But I think it will make sense for so many other, you know, real businesses, because it's one thing if you're just a software company or something, but if you're like a real business, large business, and if you if bitcoin is a significant even, let's say not not like the key, but like a significant part of your strategy, then this framework that they've built here, could make a lot of sense for you.

Mike Peterson  
George, how's the weather been treating you here? This is, this is one of the worst months at the beach. So you'll have to come back in January or February when it's perfect. Yeah, we're sweating right now. So explain to me how does a Bulgarian football team or soccer for American audience out there? Come though want to have their holding company be in El Salvador? Explain that to me. 

George Manolov  
Yeah. Well, it's a no brainer. I mean, seriously, for everyone who looked at it. But so then there's actually actually like, several things. First of all, we have to understand that Bitcoin is pretty much destined to become the global reserve currency. And so once you understand that, you know, that you want to position your organization, business in our, in our case, a club, to be using and leveraging and to be part of this growing network, right, the Bitcoin network, once you understand that, which requires a lot of work, but once you get there, then you're like, Okay, what strategy can we devise, so we can get the most out of the network? And when I'm in their network, I mean, financial, social, technological, most level of the network? And then And then, you know, in our case, what we have decided to do is that over over time, we want to decentralize ownership of the club. And how do we do this? Where do we do this in a way that is? Well clear, understandable, with easily defined rules, or while we have Bitcoin is a key part within our strategy. There is like Salvador's obvious answer. There's literally no no hesitation whatsoever and to be even more precise, so in our case, you know, Bitcoin is an asset is a long term strategy. So in any other country in the world, there is capital gains taxes from Bitcoin, right? So if bitcoin goes up in value, you know, and you decide to sell it or convert to even to convert for like other goods and services, you still owe attacks here. It's just money, right? What it should be. As, as yesterday there was this event here. Stacy Herbert said it's, you know, Bitcoin is commodities money, everything else is securities right here bitcoin is money. And then there's also now what what the government here has done is to actually define very clear rules for digital securities, enabling us to do this decentralization of the club ownership

Mike Peterson  
So basically raise and sell equity in the team in exchange for equity that's put in.

George Manolov  
Yeah, people will be able to go and become co owners of the club to become shareholders of the club. And excitingly again, like the government has put rules in place which well, basically, I was gonna say like, there's zero taxes on on Bitcoin because it's money. And there is no tax is basically, for us as a digital asset right now in the environment in El Salvador. So it's literally like, Hey, guys, we're giving you the rules and framework according to which you can realize your dreams, come and do it. So that's kind of what we're doing.

Mike Peterson  
So let's step back a minute and give people a little history of the football club that you're working with. And then I'm curious is to was, was this your idea? Was it the owner of the club came with this? Was this influenced at all by what Peter McCormick's done with Real Bedford? Yeah, so give us a little history. I know, I know that your guys team plays at a much higher echelon than than their team. But I'm just curious how that all comes together and where the idea came from?

George Manolov  
Sure, sure. So our owner of Bolts the club- Botev Plovdiv three years ago, about three years ago, about right the time when here in El Salvador, kind of the Bitcoin adoption started on a governmental level. And you know, the time at the time, the club was not doing particularly well, especially in terms of finances, it was not doing well at all. So ever since then, he has been investing into growing the club into improving on the business level, but also very importantly, on the player, right.

Mike Peterson  
But it's a very old, it's a club that with a lot of history. 

George Manolov  
So this football club, kind of based in in Europe's oldest city, which is which is Plovdiv, where I was born, as well. And we actually just recently became part of the International Club of pioneers, which is a club of the oldest football clubs in every country. So yeah, it's like, we have a very rich history right now, in Bulgaria. We're like the third largest club in terms of in terms of fan base. We just got the brand new stadium that was opened one year ago. So it's the most modern facility in the country,

Mike Peterson  
And how many seats?

George Manolov  
It's 8600 seats.

Mike Peterson  
Did you guys fill it? 

George Manolov  
We, so this is the interesting part. Yeah, we filled this on the first opening game, then, then it's been kinda average attendance has been around 8000 people.

Mike Peterson  
It's still pretty full.

George Manolov  
It's okay. But there's a lot more to grow, right? We filled it right, about a month ago, for a second time. Because we reached this. At the time, we were playing the semi final of the Bulgarian cup. And this was big, and people were like, super excited. So so this was the stadium was full for a second time. We won. Then we came to even won the cup on the final, which was, which was huge. And kind of speaks a lot to the work that's been done on on the on the football level. But yeah, from now on, there is well, now that we're starting to play on European level for the for the Europa League, which, what we tend to believe and to hope that next year, we're going to fill the stadium not not once per season, but I mean, I hope like 6,7,8 times per year, you know, for for all the cool games. And eventually, and eventually, hopefully every game right? As it happens to large European clubs, overall, you know, in Italy, in Germany, so on and so forth. But so yeah, coming back to your question. So two years ago, Anton has been working a lot to just like put the right things in place. Because as we discussed before, the talk of Football Club is a very complex organism. There's a business side, there's the football side, which kind of the flip side is key, because if the football goes, well, you can do you know, lots of things on the business side, which kind of we're doing now. Right? If the football does not go well, and you have, you know, lots of fans, which is in our case, 10s of 1000s of people who can get very angry, you know, and rightfully so, right? Then then you can do really much on on the business level but but yes, results speaks for for them, like in our case, like we've we've done a pretty good job on the football level. And so, Anton has had this vision of, you know, bringing back the team back to kind of its historical days because actually this season that's coming up we're marking 40 years anniversary since we won against Bayern Munich.

Mike Peterson  
40 year anniversary

Speaker 1  
Yeah. 40 year anniversary.Bayern Munich was it was visiting us in Plovdiv, and we beat them to new so that's like a big thing in you know, in our fans minds fifth, and this year, we're going to play again in Europe. Now we still have a look.

Mike Peterson  
Now, how does that work? Do you have to be invited is that because you guys won something that qualified you or what 

George Manolov  
Yeah, so so no, it's because we want it's not just about inviting, like the top the top clubs in, in in. So basically we have two kind of competitions in the country, there's a championship, which is like everyone plays, everyone, like lots of times, right? And whoever gets the most points becomes a champion. And then there's the cup, which is like, in the UK, that would be like the FA Cup, for instance, where there's like direct eliminations. And so there's a shorter path to winning the cup, but obviously, car stakes games,

Mike Peterson  
But it's not just within Bulgaria, it's within Europe? 

George Manolov  
No, no, these are our Bulgaria, Bulgarian and once you win the cup, you get you know, you get the rights to, in our case to play in the Europa League, which is the second largest European competition for the Champions League, which is obviously the most the most elite one. So the Europa League and then if you if you win the championship, then you get to play and potentially play in the in the Champions League, okay, in our case is like this. So we just won the cup, giving us the Europa League. And

Mike Peterson  
Now and forgive me because I know nothing about football. So well, will you guys still play in the Bulgarian league while you're playing in the European League? Do they happen at the same time? Or? 

George Manolov  
Yeah, exactly. It's a very tight schedule. Look at those football players, it's a lot they they don't get much rest. But But that's kind

Mike Peterson  
That's exciting for them? To be playing at that level. 

George Manolov  
That's the big opportunity for the players, that's a big opportunity for the club, because that's where also the money's right, the international games are way more watch way more interesting, you know, sponsors care, broadcasting, you know, US participants get money literally by just playing at this level, from the, from the tournaments from the competition. Players get get noticed, you know, they, they may might move to another bigger club, and so on and so forth. So this is really kind of what, and this is really the vision, actually, at the end of the day, and kind of one of the reasons why we're doing this Bitcoin thing is because the goal is how to reach and then and then every year be playing in European competitions, and, you know, slightly keep leveling up consistently.

Mike Peterson  
So I'm curious did what Peter's done with his team, and I know they're at a much lower league, they're kind of starting from scratch and building up with this vision, taking it all the way. But did that influence this decision? Or was it something that was already percolating there? Or? 

George Manolov  
Yes, for sure. I mean, like, from my perspective, basically, you know, we got connected with Anton, I cannot do a lot of Bitcoin related things in Bulgaria, published the Bitcoin standard. We're now publishing broken money, Fiat standard price of tomorrow. So I kind of like especially since the past two years have been very, very devoted to Bitcoin. And then we got connected then he had this idea that he wants to do something with with Bitcoin he already knew of, yeah, he could notice like, like, what, what Peter has done. But but it wasn't like a very, let's say, clear. It's not like we knew what we will do. You know, like, in many things in life, we just have in my mind, like Anton understood very well, that Bitcoin is going to play a very big role in the world, right? And bitcoin is international brands that you can use without paying royalties to anyone. And, and also, it's like, a unanimously positive thing, right? As a concept as a, you know, as something that's happening. So he was like, you know, he was looking for somebody to lead this project, to project manage, if you want to make it happen, right to execute it all. And I was like, frankly, at this point, one of those things in life, which is like unreal, that's, that's happening in my country in my city. So, so yeah, there wasn't like a clear path, obviously, you know, the fact that that Peter started this, like, helped and even kind of, you know, how, how good he has been doing over the past month? Yeah. Also helps, you know, because it kind of validates that, that we could do also also great things. So, so yeah, but but the actual strategy has been a it's been you know, changing and figuring that out. Yeah, you're figuring out on the way it's like, frankly, like when I was starting when I was like, I mean this is super cool, but we've never done it and I was like, do we do this do we not do it? I don't know like how this is done, but at some point is like I mean, I must try it because it's it can have such a huge positive impact back home but but also internationally as well. 

Mike Peterson  
So in a second, I'm gonna ask a little bit about your Bitcoin background, but we got to do the, the the ask to tell people to make sure that they review the podcast to make sure people know about it, we do a lot of work in here to make sure that we get this right. So we want people to be able to hear it and the algorithms care about the review. So please do us a favor, review it. And if you could also subscribe if you're watching on YouTube, that makes a huge difference for this. So we want to know your Bitcoin story and how it came to, you know, bring you together to help and run this football club. 

George Manolov  
Right. Well, so I got in crypto first, in 2017 was in Bulgaria attended the lecture by friend was talking mostly about the theorem, although Bitcoin a little bit and was like, really, you know, he was super passionate, which you know, is contagious, kind of, but I kind of let it go. And then after some time, so the price of Etherium go up a lot. I should pay more attention to it. In 2017, then, I was also working on this project that was raising money and we saw the ICOs raising the crazy amounts of money. And so we decided, we're gonna do something around ICOs. Right. So I worked on this ridiculously. But I mean, it is what it is, right?

Mike Peterson  
What was your coin called? 

George Manolov  
Leap. 

Mike Peterson  
Leap? 

George Manolov  
Yes. Leap. It was a good coin, like. But, yeah, it was a total failure in many ways. Just like, first of all, it was absolutely unrealistic. Second of all, the team broke, like, in very bad, you know, type of like how startups go. But anyways, this whole experience was like, very much like learning, getting around seeing what's happening in this crazy land, because it was also a lot about my like, I just, it was not too far that I went to school. So I realized that there's so much that is happening in this whole space that people are figuring out on the go, right, nobody has the answers or know the answer. So there's this whole public discussions, like people are trying to figure out what is going to be valuable, what is not. So this was very interesting for me intellectually. So I kept following. And in 2018, you know, after the, that was basically like in the bear market, but I still kind of knew this is going to be around, like, some of the things that are happening in this space are going to have a big impact on the world. So at the time, I joined in the very early days, Nexo, which was pretty much the pioneer of crypto back loans, that later were developed by BlockFi, Celsius. You know, unchained and all these other companies. 

Mike Peterson  
And you were telling me at lunch today that that Nexo's still around. I just assumed they all had imploded. 

George Manolov  
No, no, no. This is around and it's one of the reasons why, as I told you, is because, you know, at least my, my kind of evaluation of the whole situation is that we coming from East Europe, like most of the other companies that imploded were from the US. Yeah, right? If I'm not wrong, so and there's like, you know, when you're coming from a harsh reality, you're kinda working according to some other stuff. 

Mike Peterson  
Boot strapping instead of just a bunch of venture capital.

George Manolov  
Exactly, exactly. So that's exactly what will happen since so, you know, our our founders, there were very kind of cutthroat when it comes to you know, the sort of the rules according to which we make deals and because like, we want to be in this business for some time, right? Not not just for you know, for the short term, or like for returns at all costs, like maximize today, so, so next week did well, but in my mind, you know, over over, you know, the more I spent like, actually in 2019 when you said you started the Bitcoin bridge here, that's when I read the Bitcoin standard. And it was obviously I read her like, knew already a lot about Bitcoin was listening to a lot of podcasts but because that was like the final thing that made me realize that Bitcoin is going to be huge in itself, I was still like, largely in crypto, let's say, but like Bitcoin as a as, as like a major thing in geopolitics, money and so on. And so for now, oh, my god, like, is it possible I'm getting it so early, and people are out there doing their thing? And that's when I was decided to that this book needs to be in Bulgaria and I wanted to share it with with people who don't speak English or not, not that good English. And so I reached out to save, got the rights, published it literally one year later at the start of the previous bull market indthe 2020.

George Manolov  
And do you do the translation yourself? Or did you hire somebody to do?

George Manolov  
It's hard. Yeah, it's hard to do actual translation but but I do the reading, so I always like, go through it before it's published. But I found very good. I work with two translators now because then we did price of tomorrow little book about Bitcoin. Now we're finalizing the Fiat standard and broken money. Okay. So I have two very good translators. One very good editor. And I do the final kind of kind of reading So and cannot the more I spent you know, after the the Bitcoin standards, then I would pay a very high tribute to Alan Farington as well, who we have the privilege to be advising us and helping now with with with much of the Bitcoin things that we're doing with both because especially after I read Bitcoin is Venice, his book and he has this piece, only the strong survive these two pieces were kind of the nail in the coffin for me like just okay crypto is just all experiment land, playland or like people doing things, either, you know, for short term opportunistic goals, or they're kind of just not realizing that what they're doing cannot, you know, be sustainable in the long run,

Mike Peterson  
Or they're just scammers. 

George Manolov  
Yeah, yeah. And then at that point, I was like, I just don't want to, like, I'm the type of person who really wants to put in my time into something that that is impactful, right? Because time is the most important and money okay, it represents time, but that's how I literally get fulfilled is by doing things that makes sense. Yeah. And so that's when I decided I will focus on on Bitcoin. I moved on from Nexo and I started working on education. Once my own Bitcoin value me educational platform started doing blogging about it having a newsletter, credit a master class, like an introductory class, really to Bitcoin. And then, and then yeah, this this game, like we got introduced with, with Anton, the owner of the football club Anton Zingarevich. And, I was like, blown away by the fact that this is happening, and that we could define this. And here we are nine months later.

Mike Peterson  
So was it clear to you right away that there was a place like a position for you there to be working at it, or you just happen to be introduced to them? And you guys kind of developed this together? How did it come about that you're working for them now? 

George Manolov  
Yeah, we got introduced, like I said, he had the idea that he wants to do something with Bitcoin. He didn't exactly know, he had the vision, let's say, and, and at the time, the clip was not doing very well, like this particular few months on the playing field, we were not doing very well, which, like I said, is key, especially for our type of size of club, where there's fan base, there's like, you know, the whole community cities paying attention to what we're paying attention to what you're doing. So if you do something like Bitcoin, you know, or, I mean, frankly, anything, but when the the club is not performing well. People are just literally hating and just not reacting by the team. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, spot on. So but anyways, like, I was like, you know, it's my approach to life is, okay, let's move forward. Because we were like thinking we need to three months kind of to set things in, you know, in the direction of making this happen, because when I joined, I mean, I'm working on Bitcoin strategy, but there is a lot of very traditional kinds of things that need to be done in order for you to be able to what our goal was to internationalize our brand, right? Our website was only in English, like, and it was a website from 13 years ago. So, you know, my first role really was okay, let's find and organize the complete reworking of the website. So we did that. And let's do it until we strive to do it on October 31, because it was the anniversary of white paper. There's this significance.

Mike Peterson  
That's even worse than our website Paco what was ours? Two years before we finally updated. 13 years. 

George Manolov  
Yeah, no, it was bad. But I mean, it worked. It worked for what it did. But now it's way way better. I'm very happy with what we've done. And there's still obviously things to improve but but we did the website. We did also, you know the  infrastructure of starting to accept Bitcoin payments with BTC pay.  

Mike Peterson  
So can people buy tickets for the for the matches with Bitcoin? And merchandise? 

George Manolov  
People can buy merch in different shops, people can buy merch online on our online store. Tickets I'm pushing really and this should happen literally in the next few weeks months, because basically, like I say, it's complex, but you have any organization different vendor for these different vendor for that. So this has taken us a little more time but yeah, very soon you'll be able to buy tickets for the games, but also because we you know, we we're actually I mentioned we have like a brand new largest stadium in the in the country most modern. So we are actually starting to expand the to do not just games but actually other events. Now we're going to have the first very large concert of, have you ever heard of Goran Bregović? 

Mike Peterson  
Who? 

George Manolov  
Goran Bregović. 

Mike Peterson  
I don't think so.

George Manolov  
No, right. Okay. Yeah, I was just curious. So it's actually a very, very famous Serbian artists singer. And like, yeah, he's like, super famous. 

Mike Peterson  
Like pop singer, like classical or what is the? 

George Manolov  
Pop with very broken like, okay, elements. Yeah, it's really fun, I think. I mean, if you're, yeah. 

Mike Peterson  
I'll have to look it up. 

George Manolov  
Many people like it, especially if you're like, live there, the atmosphere is super cool. But anyway, so we're starting to we're going to be doing this type of concerts and, and it's not just for the games, but also for the concerts that you will be able to do pay with Bitcoin. And now it's this guy, but I think it's a matter of time before we do also, like, all kinds of other want this to be, you know, our stadium to become, to grow it as a business and as a business is not just the games because games, you have maybe two months, two times per month, right? But But outside of this, there's so many other ways in which you can monetize this facility. There's commercial facilities, there's, like I say, big, it can be a concert. I don't know, like, even what like I was just at my data at another stadium where Andre logia created like a Bitcoin Conference. In theory, we could do that. I don't know if we do it, frankly, like, because there's so many conferences. But in theory, we could do a conference about Bitcoin or whatever, you know. So there's, there's a lot kind of kind of to do this. And yeah, like now that we are really on a path to integrate Bitcoin has what I what we have as a vision is to build like a 360 degree Bitcoin football club, but this is going to be part of the stadium. So in all of these various activities that are not necessarily football related, you know, Bitcoin will be present in one way or another.

Speaker 1  
So do you guys have like, is it integrated in the jerseys and you know, the signage in the fields? Or is that long term plan or? 

George Manolov  
Yeah, we have it on the jerseys, on every jersey, we have Bitcoin we have January's partner for us this season. We have, but we are open actually, in talking to a lot of other companies potentially for how they could be positioned how they want to reach our existing audience, international audience for for this upcoming season.

Mike Peterson  
So Bitcoin companies, you guys are looking for sponsorships? No. I mean, it's an amazing fit for them to be able to come in, especially if they want to reach the European audience.

Speaker 1  
Yeah. Especially the European audience. Exactly. That's, that's the biggest. Exactly, because we're now entering. Like I said, Europa League. Yeah. So it's going to be international games, it's going to be international coverage. Also in in, within our country, that that's a big, you know, not just not just our offense, but like, overall, the whole country would be would be watching these type of games. And there's a lot of, we'll start where we're, well, we're in the advanced stages of also being able to broadcast the games internationally. Because right now, you know, like, anyways, like, there's some work to be done on, on this on this level. And, and there is like, the, you know, the thing I'm very excited about is like, it's not just about the games, it's not just about the European level, it's also about the like, once you start thinking about the type of things that you can do just from content wise perspective, from no sensation or curiosity type of perspective that you can do when you have like a big stadium, when you have like full stadium with people. You can, there's some very crazy ideas of things that you can do. And I think it's just a question of time before before we do.

Mike Peterson  
So I think we have some footage. Joe Nakamoto came to visit you guys, right? Are we able to pull that up Paco just to give people kind of a sense of, you know, if you're just listening to a podcast, you'll have to imagine the stadium but it's pretty remarkable.

Voiceover  
A major league professional football club has adopted Bitcoin, with a history stretching back to before World War One. Ultras trophies galore, and a 20,000 seater stadium. This is Botev Plovdiv, Bulgaria's oldest football club and one of the country's most prestigious sports teams. The move to attract Bitcoin has netted international attention recognition from Bitcoin advocates and even hostility from the ultra fan base.

Mike Peterson  
We'll have to talk about that. But Bitcoin companies that are that are out there. This is your chance right here to be a sponsor of this team. That's, that's making waves. But I want to hear about that last party said that some of the fan base is it's kind of like, I mean, we've faced our fair share of that here and El Salvador when they announced the adoption, what what was that reactions?

Speaker 1  
Yeah, no, actually, it's very interesting, especially now that I'm here and talking to people and kind of seeing what's happening. I think there's so many similarities between El Salvador and our club is just like yourselves around a country level where we know football, because nobody knew of El Salvador before they did it, or very few people. Nobody knew internetional.

Mike Peterson  
You wouldn't be here if they hadn't. 

George Manolov  
Yeah, I wouldn't be here. We have even now people starting to visit in Plovdiv, for this they, you know, Joe Nakamoto wouldn't be there. Right? Yeah. And so when you do this, like, why, why you do? It's like, why they did it, why we did it big? Well, because we've done the work, we have the vision, and we have like, the absolute conviction that this is going to be super positive for our club, if we do the work consistently over weeks, months and years. And, you know, obviously, for him on the on the national level, but obviously, most people He knows our does, you know, still don't understand it. It's actually like, it's not the most important but like hearing for El Salvador, for the guys, what's important safety, you know, and everyone is like, absolutely loves El Salvador, because Navy has secured the safety. For for our fans, you know, it's a smaller audience, like 10s of 1000s people, not millions, but what do they care about? Well, that we win. Right? But then, but then, you know, the owner is thinking of, you know, down the line, okay, what can we do? So we keep on winning and winning ever bigger and bigger, you know, and Bitcoin is a crucial part of a part of this, of our success and of their success. But of course, like, you know, what I've come to kind of be completely in peace and understanding with this that it's everyone, you know, everyone comes from his own perspective, and it takes time for people to get it. It takes time for you to, let's say, face a particular problem, maybe in life to get it. So it's normal that many people will be absolutely, you know, just neutral to what's happening. And some may say, oh, that's like something completely not related. Because there is like a small, let's say, frankly, like, very, very little. And I'm very happy about this, because I expected a little more, let's say, What the hell was this? But still, like very little people, like, hey, what does this have to do club to do with club, that's what I've heard from actual, because we have also, some people Bitcoiners who are also fan of The Club, which are like, super in love with what we're doing. And so one of the guests was just sort of saying, a few days ago, yeah, I posted something about Bitcoin in in a general fan group. And people are like, Oh, this is not for here. Bla bla bla bla. I'm like, okay, it's okay. Give them some time. We'll keep doing the work. We keep winning. Yeah, keep winning, and we'll get them on our side and specifically know what's the actual super crazy thing. Or, like, I'm super excited is because the club, Botev is actually named after our Patreon, who is Hristo Botev, who used to be is basically, you know, one of the top two most renowned and respected revolutionaries and historical figures in our history. Because 148 years ago, he passed away, he died as he fought for Bulgaria's freedom from the Ottoman Empire at the time, and this guy, you know, he was a complete visionary as well of his time, you know, he bought and bought for the freedom of the flow of our people. But he also especially when you say he was opposed to so when you read his poems, or specific parts of them, he was a freedom lover, and really, like he fallen, but there's this line, he has something like, only one who is free can truly be called human. There was this, you know, other things about governments, or, and so on and so forth. I'm not gonna call here but, but he was truly a freedom lower. And, you know, I like one of those things that if, if he was living in this time, I'm sure he would have been a Bitcoiner. And so, so many of these values that he's stood for, right, and that our fan base is actually you know, we're very connected to this to these historical figure, like every time there's anniversary of his birth of his, of his being shot. You know, we paid him- 

Mike Peterson  
He was shot? 

George Manolov  
Yeah, he was shot by the Ottomans. But we have this saying that, you know, and he actually had it in one of these, these poems that one who false fighting for freedom does not really die like he remains eternal, right. So, so that there's this one really even I would say, deeply believed that the continuation of these values that he pushed for that our club stands for are so so much in harmony with what Bitcoin is, right? Because if without economic freedom, yeah. What other freedom do you have?

Mike Peterson  
So how, what's been the reaction with from the players?

Speaker 1  
Oh, not much reaction to be completely fair. So far, there's been some interest.

Mike Peterson  
Do they have the option of being paid their salaries? 

George Manolov  
Yes. So actually, right now that I'm not, not the salaries, because just because of Bulgarian law is like the actual salaries can only be paid in in the local currency. Which actually makes some sense. Because if you allow it to be paid in anything, you know, employers can scam people a lot with other stuff. So the actual the actual salaries will be paid in, in in BGN, which is our currency. But right now. So basically, right. After I'm going back, I'm meeting with some of the key people there. I've already met with a few and kind of like, have been preparing them, or like, I mean, really sharing not yet really preparing. But I think it's you know, it's a matter of time, it's a question of time before people get it, right, we all know. So I think a couple of them are very close to it. So I think we will have positive positive news on this site. And we have many, like I said, marketing ideas, how to make it exciting for potential, like if they also mean companies that we work for, to engage the players to engage the fans, so that they start getting it, it's just that a lot of kind of a lot of the things that that we can do and that we have as ideas. You know, you have to do them at the right time. Yeah, exactly. Because like I said, there's this very established organization, lots of stakeholders, lots of people involved, you know, they also have to kind of feel that this is real and that this makes sense. And that does bring some positivity, some momentum for the club. You know, right time for everyone. Step by step.

Mike Peterson  
So any of these ideas you want to share with us are they like under wraps until you roll them out?

George Manolov  
Want to share?

Mike Peterson  
You don't have to, I'm going to put you on the spot, you know, when I want to give away your edge but yeah, I could see lots of fun things that you can do that tie Bitcoin and- 

George Manolov  
Yeah, and just literally into, you know, what's happening on the field? How much we win? Yeah, no, there's a lot of things that you can you can think of romp around with Bitcoin?

Mike Peterson  
So was it your idea to come here and set up the holding company in El Salvador? And how was that received? Does that seem like crazy, like, we're gonna leave wait, we're gonna leave Europe. And we're gonna go to the small Central American country to set up our holding company? 

George Manolov  
Right. So it was a it was a process like everything, literally everything that we're doing, we rarely have the in. I mean, we have kind of the big end vision or goal in mind, but we don't have the exact path to it. Right? Yeah. So we have this vision that we want to create like a 360 degree Bitcoin club. And somewhere about in the last year, we started paying attention to the digital securities law, the digital assets law, that was a framework that was created and just introduced. And we start you know, we we looked at the volcano bones that are coming up here. We started first thinking of hey, like maybe we can do some sort of bond ditions and we worked quite a lot on this but the fact is that you know, we've spoken with investors and there wasn't that much interest in in that regard. Then yeah, oh, yeah. At some point like at some point anyways, like we we realized that it could be way way stronger for us long term to actually you know, decentralized part of the ownership like sell some of the shares because then we can get people to really care you're on board right

Mike Peterson  
People are shareholders their fans also. 

George Manolov  
Yeah, and you you are part of the journey you are part of this of this incredible what what could become an incredible story. You know, as we do the work, and I'm not really sure at what point whether but but I think yeah, because initially you know, the the local regulation is is very flexible, and it allows you to raise capital here like issue a bond or sell equity, even with a foreign entity, so you don't have to have a local entity. However, there is just like, things in our case that make it economically like I said, no brainer for us to to move here, because in Bulgaria, Bitcoin is not legal tender in Bulgaria, you know, they're like, well, actually, our tax law is kind of, kind of quite good, overall, but still, it's not zero taxes. Yeah. And here, you know, Bitcoin is legal tender. And second, if you are a digital asset issuer, then you get this super beneficial tax treatment where there's basically no taxes at this point in time. So economically, for us to maximize kind of the result for our shareholders, it made the most sense to center our, to make El Salvador the center of our economic activity right. Now, we're not, we're still like a real business. And, you know, the majority of everything is happening out there in Bulgaria, right, with the Bulgarian and with the physical entity, you know, we, the team on the ground. However, the the economic center that we are planning to, to execute is to be here in El Salvador as the first step. And then because of, because of just like this, the centrality of, of Bitcoin in our strategy, and I think it looks like we're the first step that's doing exactly the setup. But I think it will make sense for so many other, you know, real businesses, because it's one thing if you're just a software company or something, but if you're like a real business, large business, and if you if bitcoin is a significant even, let's say not not like the key, but like a significant part of your strategy, then this framework that they've built here could make a lot of sense for you. Right? It's just, it's just better, right? Yeah. And then I mean, it's up for the other countries to it's really like a competition out there like for them to provide a better more competitive landscape for Bitcoin focused. 

Mike Peterson  
Well, I mean, as you're talking I'm thinking if and I wonder if Peter's even realized that advantage of of doing something like this for their team because I think that they're headquartered in the UK I think with the tax structure there and so they might be able to benefit from this also.

George Manolov  
They might. Yeah, I'm not aware exactly. But but I'm sure UK is not very fun in terms of-

Mike Peterson  
So yeah, so you guys might set off a chain reaction places realizing hey, to be competitive we this is this is the way to do it. I love that Yeah. So that's gonna be exciting for you to be leading this. What's your official position there? Are you the chief Bitcoin adoption advisor or what's the-

George Manolov  
I go by Bitcoin Director.

Mike Peterson  
Okay, Bitcoin Director. I love it. Yeah, we need to get you a shirt made. Yeah, so what is this your first time in El Salvador? Or you've been here? 

George Manolov  
First time. 

Mike Peterson  
Okay. So curious as your your impressions. What you had heard about El Salvador before what you'd heard about brutality, we, we had, we did a show the other day with a YouTuber from Romania. And he said, part of the reason he wanted to come here is he has a huge following Romania. And he's, he's like, the media has all these negative things they've been saying recently, he's like, I was in El Salvador 10 years ago, I want to see what it was really like. And he said he couldn't believe he says, like, it's different country, and all the negative stuff he heard was, you know, not relevant to what he was seeing on the ground. So I'm curious as to what you heard before, and what been your experience being here?

Speaker 1  
Obviously, being a Bitcoiner, I didn't have that negative, you know, that expecting things will be would be very bad. But to be fair, things have very much surpassed my expectations. I thought this would be like, more more developing, you know, the feeling when and I still, you know, I've been here like, five, six days or so. Yeah. So it's not like have traveled so much around the country. I actually does the first day I'm out of San Salvador, the the capital. So I will definitely come back. And I would love to explore a bit more and see, but, but I've been very impressed. Literally, you know, just the people first of all, like, every kind all kinds of people from you know, the business talks of we're having to the superhero people in the in the restaurant at the airport, hotels, just very nice people. Very friendly, very friendly people. Super nice. But which is which is a huge asset, right. And there's many parts of the world where that's not the case.

Mike Peterson  
I mean, that's really the reason I moved here and bought a house here 20 years ago was just, the people were so friendly and enjoyable to be around. 

George Manolov  
Yeah, actually. And that's what, where you want to spend your time right. Yeah, good people, good vibes, your life is better. So that's one thing as like, yes, there's actually some negative media, I think, not very much, because I largely ignore traditional media. But I think I've seen like some negative media back in Bogota about El Salvador, and even my parents were like, Whoa, be very careful. You know, we've read stuff. And I'm like, Mama, like, I talked to people there, they say it's safe. And I go, and like, what is actually like, as I've spoken to a lot of people here, you know, International was also like several locals and talk to them a lot. They're like, this is a miracle, like, four or five years ago, you couldn't imagine running around, you know, going for a jog or riding your bike, or even like walking to work. It's like, unimaginable. And now it's, it's, you know, as McKenna says, safest country in the Western Hemisphere. So it's impressive to also see the people being so happy with the change, and the, you know, just just the average person. So so that is, that is very impressive. So it has definitely surpassed my expectations. And then in terms of like, people I meet, you know, even right now, that that we met, Jeff, your friend, but all these other people that I have a meeting here, I feel like this is really becoming the land of opportunities just because of these. Yeah, these freedom and rules and openness. 

Mike Peterson  
Attracting very dynamic, yes, people that want to change the world that are these, you know, entrepreneurs with all these great ideas that really want to be in a place that is encouraging that.

Speaker 1  
And also, what I hear or see in terms of governmental policy is very interesting. Very ambitious. Very, and that's that's kind of what, you know, what, what, what Bitcoin brings, like, low time preference, yeah, being able to think because like, there's still so much to be done in this country, that is going to take years. But when you have that low time preference, that consistency of like, not just for years, you know, like, I mean, it could be even four years, because Okay, not even for Yes, actually, there's two different things. Because like many people, because of the high term field preference, they like in business terms, they think in terms of quarters, which is ridiculous. Because what can you do in a quarter, but then if you stack, actually, you know, quarter over quarter year, over a year, just can make a lot of difference, especially in the world where there's like, technology allows us to literally do so much more. And so when you combine this with not looking for the highest return within within the next quarter, or the next year, you can really, really make make very, very big things. And I'm super excited about what this could become.

Mike Peterson  
How was the process with the government here, setting up the holding company? I know you guys were early, you're probably one of the first doing this. I'm sure there was, you know, some of them whatever learning curve even for them, but I'm curious as to how that was for you here versus what you see in Bulgaria or other places that you you've operated?

George Manolov  
Um, well. I don't know. Like, if I can compare it very much to Bulgaria, because it's kind of different there. You know, me being local. Yeah. But here, it was not what you're asking. It was also very, you know, people may have because I say these positive things. And at some point, it might seem like, Oh, my God, like he's, he's propagating here. But it's, you know, it is the way it is. So from the very first moment, when we started looking for contacts in, in El Salvador, like people very quickly start Oh, like connect to this guy. Like there's, for example, here, there's a Bitcoin Association, the Bitcoin Association immediately connected us with several people got on a quick call, they, you know, pulled us in kind of gave us a good perspective, then then we got on a few more calls, in our case with with law firms and consulting firms, over the people, frankly, like in these various places were friendly and positive. We've been obviously working a lot with between x securities because because that's kind of where where we plan to do the equity issuance. So they've been helpful also with with introductions. And the actual Company Incorporation took about two weeks, which was actually quite stressful. It was very easy, just like few in few in a very simple, straightforward form. And then the law firm did it. So it's been quite easy. And And interestingly, not just from my perspective, actually have another friend back in Bulgaria, literally 10 days ago, when I said I'm coming he said, like, hey, let's let's give him this. We talk to him, because he's also considering to, to do business here. And, and we get on the phone. He's like, man, like these guys are very friendly, open minded. It's very different because he's done things a lot along other Latin American and in general across the world. He's like, in many other places, it's hard to, you know, for people to reply, or they reply not clearly or it's just like hard to do work. Here, it seems like quite quite well, you know, the first impression. So I mean, you know, maybe to balance it out to thing. There's definitely room for improvement. Right? It's not like paradise, there's a lot of room for improvement. And I think also, this is the big opportunity, because now there is them. You know, let's say high skilled, ambitious, open minded, enthusiastic people coming up here. At the same time, I could see, at least my impression is that the mass amount of people here are not, let's say, not that high skilled labor. 

Mike Peterson  
There's definitely no skill set. Yeah, right now. 

George Manolov  
There's a skill set gap between many locals. And what is what is happening, but but that's what also this is going to be, I guess, like the big thing for the, for the government and for the policies that are put in place, in general, how things are set up so that vast majorities of people can can level up as well. Yeah. Because this is, yeah, you don't want to end up in a situation where again, like you have very wealthy very just like capable people and no other school, we're very far from that.

Mike Peterson  
So that's why I think it's so important that they've really been focusing on education there, specifically around the Bitcoin in the tech space.

Speaker 1  
But yeah, Bitcoin is a big starting point like what John from Mi Primera Bitcoin they're doing is impressive, man, the numbers you're sharing. I'm like,

Mike Peterson  
No, they're they're great. The Kubo plus thing that they're doing with the Bitcoin office was with Stacey. I mean, there's all these the Taurus dev that's doing another, there's all these different things that are really leveling I've seen even the last couple years, how quickly this this skill kind of rises to the top. And so I think there's a short term, you know, that's a little bit of a challenge. But I think five years from now, you're gonna see this new crop of engineers and coders and you know, all these people to fill these, these opportunities. Absolutely. I'm excited to start following you guys. Especially you said you're gonna be you guys are working on distribution deal. The to be on television worldwide? Oh, yes. Yes. Okay. Yes. So we can follow you. But that's not- 

George Manolov  
Not on television, but online.

Mike Peterson  
Online. Okay. Okay. So, will that work? Is that available already? Or is that? Okay? It's coming. So you'll have to let us know when that's done. So we can put the announcement out to the Bitcoin space to their new favorite team.

Speaker 1  
Where there's also you know, it's not just on TV, I mean, we're in live.

Mike Peterson  
Now, I've never been to Bulgaria. So this may be a good excuse for next time. 

George Manolov  
Your audience is in Europe or if they are in Europe, it's it's literally you know- 

Mike Peterson  
They can stay at your house right.

George Manolov  
Recommend them here. But yeah, there's direct flight from London, straight to Plovdiv and a few other cities. So the Sofia is very close by which is the capital, like an hour and a half drive. And there's a lot of Bitcoin things happening there actually, too, as well. Like, right now. I'm actually literally flying tomorrow and then Sunday, I'm going straight to a conference Bitcoin Conference in Sofia.

Mike Peterson  
Ind Sofia. Yes, yes. I know. There's one going on in Prague.

George Manolov  
It's right before the Prague one. So my different plumbing and Donna who is also YouTuber, you might have heard him here too. But Bulgaria's largest YouTuber, on Bitcoin. He organizes this event and the third actual Bitcoin Conference he's doing and he tries to do it. Yeah, around another big conference. So cool. speakers come like we have this time. Alex Witzke. Principally lb Farington, Luke Broyles and Ole Miss. 

Mike Peterson  
You guys got a great lineup? 

George Manolov  
Yeah, really cool lineup. So we have conferences, you know, what were what were happening like in Plovdiv. We have weekly meetup. We have Bitcoin bakery. And I hope to have other things, you know. 

Mike Peterson  
We need to get a circular economy going there. Now that you got the football team orange pilled.

George Manolov  
Exactly. Again, like we said, step by step.

Mike Peterson  
Well, where can people support you guys follow you as the team on Twitter? What's the Yeah, give us the lowdown of how they can become fans. 

George Manolov  
Of course. So. So we have our website, which is botevplovdiv.bg 

Mike Peterson  
How are people going to find that? I mean, I can't spell that out for us or something. So but but I guess that's the easiest way for them to find it because they're they're not gonna find it that- 

George Manolov  
It is on Twitter, which is like botev. 

Mike Peterson  
Okay. How do you spell it?

George Manolov  
Botev_EN. Okay, that's, that's on Twitter. And from there you can find anything else. And we're also Nostr, by the way. Okay, which is being quite exciting. So we also wanted to make something something new there. So we are the first football club on Nostr. 

Mike Peterson  
Really? 

George Manolov  
Yeah. And it's fine. It's sweet. And and we have we're growing.

Mike Peterson  
I think. I think block needs to sponsor you guys will have to get Jack Dorsey. On board there. You guys are the first ones on Nostr you're a Bitcoin team. I mean, that's a natural for them.

George Manolov  
Yeah, no, Nostr's good. I'm actually very excited for it. And especially after, you know, things, things expand now that there's other things we'll be doing. And there's, there's so much of the things that are happening that I don't even know today, right? Yeah. I mean, I can't imagine. Because to be fair, like I'm myself learning Nostr. I'm like excited to be to be doing it to be experimenting with demos with with with Primeau, and so on and so forth. But but there's definitely, I think, interactions that we can think of an inventor on players and fans there, too. So that's, that's a separate frontier. But we're glad to be leading.

Mike Peterson  
Well, that's exciting. Well, hopefully, we'll get you some additional fan base from around the world that we'll be following you guys are rooting you on and we'll have the next time you're in El Salvador, we'll have to bring you back in for an update. I don't know if there's anything else that we missed that you want to talk about, or do you think we've covered at all?

George Manolov  
No, sounds good. Follow us on Twitter. Please feel free to plan a trip to Plovdiv for a weekend. It's gonna be fun. It's gonna be an epic. We have Epic Games every basically, once the season starts every every two weeks. Like I said, we have a home game. And we're gonna be doing exciting Bitcoin stuff.

Mike Peterson  
Awesome. All right. Well, hopefully I'll make it there this year. Maybe when we go over for the conference in Lugano.

George Manolov  
Or you mentioned end of the year to Qatar. So yeah, I'm kind of underway.

Mike Peterson  
Yeah, I would Abu Dhabi. Yeah. Maybe we'll have to stop by. 

George Manolov  
Both around the region. 

Mike Peterson  
Yeah. Awesome. Well, I appreciate you coming down and sharing with us. This is exciting. I love seeing El Salvador become this hub for all this amazing stuff that's going on and we'll definitely be following you. 

George Manolov  
Thanks, Mike.