Sorare is an NFT-based fantasy soccer game that allows you to buy, verify, and resell digital player cards from over 100 recognised clubs.
You may play fantasy league lineups to win rewards, as well as purchase and trade in-game cards.
Fantasy sports is a thriving global industry, with an estimated market value of $18.6 billion in 2019 and predicted market size of $48.6 billion by 2027. In typical fantasy football or soccer games, users pick their favourite professional players, arrange their weekly lineups, and earn points for all of their players’ on-the-field performances in the hopes of outperforming their friends.
Sorare does things a little differently. It’s still a fantasy soccer game at heart, but instead of just choosing names from a list during a draught, you buy digital trade cards that are tokenized on the Ethereum blockchain. These non-fungible token (NFT) cards are yours to keep and resale as crypto collectables, but they’re also at the heart of Sorare’s fantasy experience. There are also rewards to be won, like cryptocurrencies and uncommon, precious cards.
It’s fantasy soccer combined with true digital ownership, two concepts that have gained traction in recent months as the value of licenced sports NFTs like NBA Top Shot has skyrocketed. Here’s an overview of how Sorare works and how you may get started.
What exactly is Sorare?
Sorare is a web-based fantasy soccer game with a cryptocurrency twist. It’s the same as conventional fantasy soccer in that you design your lineup each week using professional soccer stars, and their on-the-field stats—such as goals and assists—translate into in-game points. Your aim is to earn the most points each week in order to beat other users in the leagues.
Sorare includes licenced players from over 100 foreign clubs in a variety of leagues, and you’ll bolster your team by acquiring digital trading cards from the marketplace. Juventus, AC Milan, Liverpool FC, Paris Saint-Germain FC, Real Madrid, and all of Japan’s J.League teams and Spain’s LaLiga, as well as every player in Major League Soccer, are among the licenced teams (but not the clubs themselves).
How does Sorare function?
You may sign up for a variety of leagues in the game, including a rookie league for novices, specific regional leagues, and even one specifically for lineups with young players under the age of 23. Once you’ve joined a league, you may use the cards in your account to create a fresh lineup each week. Following the completion of the week, the in-game points are totalled based on all of the players’ real-world performances, and the Sorare users with the highest points are eligible to win ETH and rare cards as incentives.
What makes Sorare so unique?
Sorare combines a few things that people get obsessed with—soccer, fantasy sports games, sports memorabilia, and crypto NFTs—in a way that no other experience has equalled.
NBA Top Shot is one of Sorare’s most popular crypto NFT collectables today, however, the basketball NFT series lacks a true “game” aspect beyond individual collection-based tasks. Sorare offers genuine fantasy-style competition, but with a glaring pay-to-win component. However, for die-hards willing to invest real money on the strongest squad, there are substantial benefits in addition to the possible pleasure of triumph.
How to Start Using Sorare:
You may start playing Sorare for free, just like any other free-to-play game, crypto-infused or not. Simply join up at the Sorare website and follow the on-screen instructions to receive up to 12 free “Common” player cards.
These cards have no real-world value and cannot be sold, but they may be used in fantasy leagues in the same way as any other card in the game. During the sign-up procedure, you will select your favourite clubs from among the licenced squads, enter your first league, and create a lineup.
It’s a very simple onboarding procedure that guides you through the fundamentals before dropping you into the Market to explore purchasing premium NFT cards that are tokenized on the Ethereum blockchain. The “New Signings” option allows you to bid on new cards added to the game, while the “Transfer Market” tab allows players to resell their own cards at a predetermined price—typically significantly more than when they were initially launched.
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What is the future:
In February 2021, Sorare secured $50 million in Series A fundraising, including involvement from high-profile investors such as Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk. It announced a $680 million Series B capital round in September 2021, valued at $4.3 billion, spearheaded by Japanese tech and financial firm SoftBank.
It’s a major vote of confidence after considerable trading volume rise in 2020 and early 2021, corresponding with the broader surge of interest and value in the crypto collectables NFT sector.
“We have ambitious aspirations to continue building Sorare into a sports entertainment behemoth,” Nicolas Julia, Sorare’s co-founder and CEO, told Decrypt. “The new money will be utilised to assist us to continue to create a world-class team, expand to other leagues and sports, and improve our user experience, including the release of a mobile app.”
Sorare has also expanded beyond fantasy football with the September 2021 release of its Legends NFT collection, a series of trading cards based on great retired football players such as Franz Beckenbauer, Diego Maradona, and Michel Platini
Soccer is a genuinely global game, and Sorare currently has several licences from Europe, America, and Asia—but there’s plenty more to come—and possibly millions more people to become hooked on its unique crypto take on fantasy sports.
