English Premier League Enters NFT Deal

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orare has officially announced a multi-year agreement with the English Premier League, offering an NFT-backed fantasy football league which will feature renowned players from top teams. This is sure to be a ground-breaking partnership that promises hours of nonstop entertainment for all fans!

The English Premier League and blockchain-based fantasy football platform Sorare have recently partnered to release a series of Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) that feature digital collectibles with player cards, as reported on January 30th by CNBC.

The Paris-based startup's 3 million users will now be able to play its fantasy football game with Premier League-specific player cards. This allows fans to buy, sell and trade virtual cards of their favorite players as part of the deal. The agreement was initially reported to be valued at £30 million.

As the NFT market has experienced a sharp decrease since its peak in 2021, with sales of digital assets decreasing more than 90%, news has broken of an alliance between one of the world's biggest football leagues and an NFT start-up. This is a major step forward for both entities, as well as for the entire crypto space.

CryptoSlam reported that Sorare ascended to the 8th position in 2021, with total sales totaling an impressive $891,789 from December 31-January 30—a 45% surge compared to its preceding month! In 2022 alone, the platform's digital card sales totaled a whopping 500 million dollars, almost doubling its overall amount of 270 million achieved in 2021.

With its recent arrangement, Sorare has added to its impressive, growing list of partnerships in the sporting world, including Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association.

Sorare, established in 2018, seeks to connect fans with digital collectibles through fantasy leagues utilizing the innovative technology of blockchain.

With influential backers such as SoftBank, Accel, and Benchmark, and star athletes Lionel Messi, Serena Williams, and Kylian Mbappé among its shareholders, Sorare was successfully valued at $4.3 billion in September 2021.

Despite its growing popularity, Sorare.com has recently come under fire in the UK and France for supposedly promoting gambling activity. Consequently, the United Kingdom Gambling Commission is examining whether or not an operating license should be required of this platform - they are determining if it constitutes a form of gambling according to their 2021 notice.

The company refuted the allegations by asserting that 80% of its gamblers play for free, and additionally vowed to amplify the gratuitous components of the league as requested by the French National Gaming Authority.

Jonathan

An editor at Coincrop

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Jonathan is a Coincrop staff writer based in the UK, covering the best rates for cryptocurrency earning and borrowing products. When not at work, he's likely sailing.