Fantasy Football Startup Sorare Is Bringing Blockchain to the Masses

Founded in 2018, Sorare has quickly become a leading and trusted platform in the blockchain gaming industry capable of forming several partnerships with numerous professional football teams including Juventus, Paris Saint Germain, Lyon, Lazio, and Rome. The company uses the ERC-721 standard based on Ethereum blockchain, otherwise known as NFT.

Blockchain for the Masses

Sorare was founded in Paris in 2018 by Nicolas Julia and Adrien Montfort with the aim of building a crypto product that can be used by millions of people. Both founders previously worked at Stratumn, a leading provider of blockchain solutions, and had developed a strong interest in Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) such as CryptoKitties. They were convinced that this type of product would drive the next wave of consumer adoption. For this reason, after the experience at Stratumn, the two decided to found their startup Sorare.

The main difference with other similar projects in the space is that the Non-Fungible Token (NFTs) developed by Sorare are assets officially licensed by football clubs and leagues. The product was initially built on Loom Network’s plasma chain, which started as an Ethereum sidechain and now already has a bridge with Ethereum, with many other blockchains expected to follow.

The Game

In order to play, users need to register on the platform using a username and an email address. After completing this simple step, it is possible to create a fantasy football team by choosing 5 cards of defenders, wings, midfielders and forwards. The cards are NFTs based on the Ethereum blockchain and are sold by Sorare itself or can be purchased on secondary markets such as the OpenSea platform.

For every single player throughout each season, Sorare issues a unique NFT, 10 Super Rare player cards, and 100 Rare cards. After creating your own team you can participate in various competitions and win any prize pools. In addition, courtesy of the cards’ unique and collectible nature, their value could simply increase due to the intrinsic scarcity of NFTs. Just think that some cards were sold for over $2000 during February to understand how much value they can get.

Sorare relies heavily on the usability of its product, which is why it has created a smooth gaming experience similar to a consumer-grade app that aims to attract all football fans of any age. And if you are not familiar with using Ethereum or cryptocurrencies, Sorare has created a guide for those who are beginners but still want to create their team or simply collect their favorite players.

Sorare’s Ecosystem

Despite having existed for just two years, Sorare has been able to conclude partnerships of considerable importance including several clubs in the French League 1, some clubs in the Italian Serie A including the recent partnership with Juventus FC, or even with the German club Bayer Leverkusen for a total of 40 officially licensed clubs. The startup is also supported by investors of a certain caliber including Ubisoft, Consensys, Seedcamp and Kima Ventures. Clearly, clubs that decide to partner with Sorare don’t do it for charity. Whenever Sorare sells Non-Fungible Tokens, a part of the sales go back to the right holders (leagues, clubs or player associations). This strategy of choosing top clubs seems to be the right way to bring more and more users on board.

Thanks to the partnerships with Juventus, Lazio, AS Roma, Atletico Madrid, Porto, Schalke and more, Sorare has managed to have among its collectibles internationally renowned footballers such as Cristiano Ronaldo that certainly attract the interest of millions of fans all over the world. In addition, the team behind Sorare manages to create competitions to better engage with its community.

The latest initiative, in collaboration with BTCManager, is to explain why users believe the player they own is the best player on Sorare. To participate it is obviously necessary to have at least one card on the platform and write on twitter in minimum 5 tweets, or maximum 10, why the card chosen is the best player for the SO5 game. The person with the most retweeted & liked thread will rank 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, respectively.

Sorare is creating an interesting product that truly has the potential to bring blockchain into the hands of millions of users. Online football games are already very popular but what Sorare adds is something that until a few years ago was non-existent – digital scarcity. Digital goods that manage to obtain this property actually become real assets that can be actually held by users (not by the platforms that issue them), exchanged and possibly increase in value over time.