Key Takeaways:— Fantasy football is a real-time competition wherein you can create your own fantasy team from a list of players and compete in leagues with other people.
— Sorare’s crypto gaming model for fantasy football allows players to play the game and own the in-game assets as NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.
— Sorare is free, and anyone with a passion for football can be a part of it. By buying and trading player cards as NFTs, you can participate in fantasy football competitions and earn rewards that you own as a unique asset.
If you like fantasy football but are busy exploring the world of NFTs, we have just the thing for you. What is Sorare? Here, we explain the exciting next generation of fantasy football.
Whether it’s the champions league during the week or league football over the weekend, we all cheer for Messi and Ronaldo when they score goals for their clubs. Our passion for football is limitless.
The introduction of fantasy football took massive strides in gamifying this passion. It created a fun medium through which we could actively become a part of the game. But wouldn’t it be better and more fun if you could earn funds and own assets in the game while you play?
Today, this gamification is reaching new levels thanks to blockchain technology and NFTs (Non-fungible tokens). And for the first time, you can truly own your! Blurring the lines between fantasy and reality? You bet!
Recently, Sorare raised $680 million in a funding round led by SoftBank, taking them to a valuation of $4.3 billion. Looking ahead, Sorare plans on widening the fantasy football community. They also plan on bringing the NFT fantasy sports model to other sports.
Let’s dive in.
THE TRADITIONAL FANTASY FOOTBALL MODEL
Firstly, what is fantasy football? In short, fantasy football allows you to play along with your favorite football stars.
Before a matchday, you can create your fantasy team by choosing players from a pre-set list. After you have formed your team, you can participate in leagues and compete with your friends.
Then, you receive points based on the real-time performance of those players in their games. So, if your striker scores a goal, you earn points. If your goalkeeper saves a penalty, you earn points. Once the game is over, the person with the maximum points wins.
TRADITIONAL FANTASY FOOTBALL: TWO BASIC MODELS
— Free-to-play model: There is no participation or entry fee. It’s ideal for friends to compete with each other without involving any money. After all, the fight is for the bragging rights of who is the better manager!
— Pay-to-play model: You have to pay an amount to enter leagues and competitions. The winners and top performers in these competitions get to go home with profits.
Unfortunately, there is no real world or real life benefit of this. For instance, in the EA premier league fantasy competition, there is no added value apart from the entertainment and fun that you receive when you compete with your friends.
As fun as it may be, there has always been a void – the players never could own any in-game assets and trade them as they would with real-world objects like playing cards and action figures.
BUT ALL THAT CHANGED WITH SORARE – HERE’S HOW!
Nicolas and Adrian, two employees of a blockchain startup were mesmerized by the idea of empowering humans to collect goods digitally. Their take was that humans have inherently collected rare assets throughout history. But now, thanks to technology, they can do it faster and with more ease.
Later, Nicolas (founder) and Adrian (co-founder) gamified the experience of collecting and trading assets on the blockchain by bringing football into the mix!
In essence, Sorare, with blockchain technology, makes fantasy football more realistic through the play-to-earn model.
Here’s how the founder, Nicolas Julia, describes it in one of his interviews with Bloomberg, “Sorare is a mix between a trading card game and fantasy soccer game.”
Rather than plainly choosing your lineup from a roster of players in the traditional approach, Sorare allows you to buy a player’s card whom you want to add to your team.
These cards are in the form of NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. Hence, like any real-world asset, the rarer a card, the more valuable it is going to be!
HOW DOES SORARE BENEFIT YOU?
What sets Sorare apart from other fantasy football games are the three intrinsic features of Non-Fungible Tokens.
— Digital Scarcity – The number of tokens are fixed and cannot be manipulated because the Ethereum network is decentralized and runs on the Proof of Work mechanism.
— Authenticity and Traceability – Since NFTs are minted and traded on the blockchain, any person can verify the ownership of the NFT and also trace it back to its origin without hassle.
— Portability – Unlike other real world collectibles, NFTs exist digitally and can be effortlessly carried anywhere around the globe.
HERE’S HOW IT WORKS
Say you want to add Courtois, Piqué, and Benzema to your team.
In the old model, you pick these players from the list using your in-game credits. In Sorare, to add these players to your team, you need to own their corresponding NFTs.
Once you own an NFT, you are the sole owner of the card, thus making it an in-game asset. You can then add the card to your line-up, participate in leagues and competitions, and even trade or sell them!
Of course, since you are the sole owner of the NFTs, they are never going to expire!
HOW TO START YOUR SORARE JOURNEY?
Sorare manages to create its own fantasy football community, where you can fully invest yourself in the ecosystem and benefit from it. Want to be a part of this community? Here’s how you can get started!
— Sign up with Sorare and receive ten free cards that will help you get started. — Create your fantasy football team consisting of five players. — Then, participate in the Rookie league created for all new players. — Once you play for four weeks or enter four leagues, you will be promoted to the next level.
All the players’ cards in Sorare are non-fungible tokens varying in rarity, which means they cannot be duplicated, stolen, or manipulated.
Once you have bought and collected a few rare NFT player cards, you can participate in big competitions. Furthermore, not all cards are the same, as each player’s rating is different. This rating decides the rarity of the card.
When you play on Sorare, you stand a chance at winning weekly rewards with each matchday. These rewards include funds and special cards.
Selling your cards through trading is another way of gaining more funds in your wallet. With the help of these funds, you can buy more and better player cards that will help you win competitions.
Apart from gains in funds and player cards, you may also win tangible goods in some tournaments or with certain player purchases. For instance, you may win match tickets for football games.
WHERE IS SORARE HEADED IN THE FUTURE?
Sorare creates a fun and entertaining fantasy football platform for anyone with a passion and interest in football, whether you know much about cryptocurrency or not. The simplified game style makes it easy for anyone to get started, including you and me.
Sorare roster includes player cards with almost 180 officially licensed clubs, like Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool FC, and more. They also cover 37 leagues, including the Premier League, LaLiga, Ligue 1, and the UEFA Champions League.
With French forward Antoine Griezmann and former German striker André Schurrle as Sorare’s investors, and Spanish defender Gerard Piqué as their strategic advisor, Sorare is a trusted and credible company where you can own your game!
Currently, Sorare is focussed on the European and American markets. According to Nicolas, they would expand their market into Asia gradually in the near future. They also plan on building a more inclusive fantasy crypto gaming platform where people from across the globe can play other popular sports in addition to football.
Apart from this, Sorare also plans on offering video moments for a few matches in the form of NFTs. These moments will include bits from the team’s past and current roster.
SORARE IN A NUTSHELL
Football, fantasy sports, cryptocurrency, blockchain technology, and NFT – Sorare brings all of these together on one platform for the everyday sports bug.
Sometimes, when you play traditional fantasy football, a question may arise – apart from fun, what do you get from this? Sorare manages to answer this question and provides a solution by revolutionizing the old model of fantasy football or soccer and bringing blockchain technology and NFT into the mix.
