![]() Sorare’s big presence in Asia, Europe, and the Americas was important to SoftBank, Predhomme said. The reason the company attracted so much attention is that it operates at the intersection of NFTs, sports cards (a $5 billion market), and global fantasy sports (which is projected to grow to $48 billion by 2027), creating a multi-billion-dollar total addressable market opportunity. In addition to the investment, Marcelo Claure, CEO of SoftBank Group International and COO of SoftBank Group will join Sorare’s Board of Directors. Soccer players Gerard Piqué, Antoine Griezmann, Rio Ferdinand and César Azpilicueta also participated in the round. In addition to SoftBank, investors included Atomico, Bessemer Ventures, D1 Capital, Eurazeo, IVP, and LionTree, as well as existing investors including Benchmark, Accel, Headline, and high-profile business angels. In the first half of the year, $2.5 billion worth of NFTs were sold. The weekly revenues for NFTs peaked in May and then crashed, but in August those revenues were bigger than ever. Investors are pouring money into NFTs, and some of those investors are game fans. And an NFT digital collage by the artist Beeple sold at Christie’s for $69.3 million. Published by Dapper Labs, NBA Top Shot has surpassed $710 million in sales in just a year. NBA Top Shot (a digital take on collectible basketball cards) is one example. NFTs have exploded in other applications such as art, sports collectibles, and music. The market for NFTs surged to new highs in the second quarter of 2021, with $2.5 billion in sales in the first half of the year, up from just $13.7 million in the first half of 2020. While confusing or uninteresting to mainstream gamers, NFTs have been extremely popular with crypto enthusiasts who are also game fans. That means that rare digital items can be sold for higher prices in NFT-based games. NFTs use the transparent and secure ledger of blockchain to uniquely identify digital items. ![]() In particular, the company will bring more North American clubs into the game. The company’s ambition in soccer is to onboard the top 20 soccer leagues globally and the top 50 soccer associations, across not just men’s soccer but also women’s soccer. The company has to scale up and hire high-skilled people in its operations, and it has to secure and protect its intellectual property and bring people on board who can do that, Predhomme said. That’s a huge amount of revenues given the small base of users, and that’s an example of the kind of market potential for the company if it manages to get tens of millions of users, as is possible with many mobile games.īut the money will be useful as the company hits a critical juncture. Sorare has over 600,000 registered users on the platform and has licensed players from over 180 soccer organizations, including Real Madrid, Liverpool, Juventus, the French and German Football Federation. The number of monthly active paying Sorare users grew by 34 times from the second quarter of 2020 to the second quarter of 2021, with quarterly sales increasing by 51 times over the same period. Predhomme said that the company has seen tremendous growth this year with over $150 million worth of cards traded on the platform since January. Huge growthįounded in 2018 by Nicolas Julia and Adrien Montfort, Sorare was created by soccer fans to be “the game within the game.” “At the end of the game week, you win exciting prices like additional NFTs and merchandise,” Predhomme said. Players can buy cards based on their favorite players and teams, and then play with those cards in fantasy soccer competitions. If the soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo scores a goal in real life, he can score in the game and players can earn more points, Predhomme said. Players don’t have to wager money or pay fees to enter competitions. ![]() “It’s based on the real-life performance of the players, and through this game, fans can actually connect with the players and what’s happening in real life.” The magic happens at the intersection of collectibility and sports,” he said. ![]() “It’s really about creating meaningful connections using the cards. (We’ll be talking about ways for games to grow - including with NFTs - at our GamesBeat Summit Next event on November 9-10). Thibaut Predhomme, the head of operations at Sorare, said in an interview with GamesBeat that the company will open a U.S. Right about now, the developers at Electronic Arts who create FIFA Soccer, the most popular soccer video game in the world, might be wondering what they’re missing out on here when it comes to NFT soccer games. What’s astounding about this funding is that Sorare at the moment only has 30 employees. ![]()
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