Sorare, a Paris-based NFT (non-fungible token) fantasy gaming startup, has closed an agreement with the Premier League, the UK’s top football division, for teams and players from the league to be part of its template. The multi-year deal reportedly involves payments of tens of millions of pounds per year to the league.
Sorare includes the Premier League on its platform
Sorare, a Paris-based fantasy NFT gaming startup, has closed an agreement with the UK Soccer Premier League to use their images as part of their gaming platform. Application users will be able to build their own teams with players and teams from the mentioned league. With this agreement, Sorare has five of the most important European leagues on its platform, including the first division of soccer in Spain, the Spanish Laliga.
While the NFT model has faced several difficulties due to the cryptocurrency market downturn, Sorare allows anyone to include players as part of their fantasy teams without having to purchase their collectibles in a free-to-play mode. Nicolás Julia, CEO of Sorare explained that many players have migrated to this game mode, since 87% of players do not spend money on the platform.
Julia explained that the platform relies on transactions from high-powered NFT users to be profitable, as there are still unique collectibles available on the platform.
Offer details
The deal reportedly had to be kept secret because the Premier League was also negotiating with other platforms on similar deals. According to sky newsthe deal will replace another partnership, with Consensys, an Ethereum software company that was dropped last year.
While there have been no official announcements on numbers, the Financial Times reported that the deal involves paying “tens of millions of pounds per year”, with each payment contingent on the app’s performance. The deal also allows the Premier League to take a stake in the fantasy startup.
Sorare saw significant growth in 2021, raising $680 million in September as part of its Series B funding round led by Softbank. At the time, the company reached a valuation of more than $4 billion.
In September of last year, the company announced a partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA) to launch an NFT-based game featuring players and teams from across the league. Additionally, in November, Argentine soccer superstar Lionel Messi became an investor and brand ambassador for Sorare.
What do you think of the deal Sorare closed with the Premier League? Tell us in the comment section below.
image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, WikiCommons, weird / Shutterstock.com
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