The integration of crypto into sports, especially soccer has changed the way fans interact with their favorite sports stars as the influence of cryptocurrencies grows at an unprecedented rate. Now soccer teams have their NFTs and coins, catering to a massive fan following that wants much more than just a rush of adrenaline.
The trend began back in 2018 when PSG announced plans to issue its own coin, and now dozens of soccer clubs have issued their tokens, and NFT cards are becoming popular. This integration is transforming how fans engage with their favorite sports, offering new ways to participate and invest.
Like in sports, acknowledging risks and strategizing your game in responsible gambling is crucial as the allure of quick gains can lead to risks that must be managed responsibly. Let’s delve into how these digital assets are reshaping the sports industry and what the future holds.
Sorare: The Most Popular NFT Platform for Soccer Lovers
In the past few years, several soccer clubs have released their own NFTs with Sorare being one of the most popular platforms to trade NFTs. Sorare is a game in which you can create your own virtual soccer team using a base of 4 thousand players. Players are “packed” in sets of cards with episodes of various matches.
More than 130 major soccer clubs from around the world are now working with Sorare, including: “PSG, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Juventus, Real Madrid, Zenit and Spartak. According to the tracker Nonfungible.com, Sorare is among the top 3 actively growing NFT projects, together with CryptoPunks and SuperRare, with a digital turnover of more than €10 million. The platform’s average monthly growth in Russia since the beginning of the year is 115%.
How Sorare Works?
During the game season, Sorare gives fans a limited number of cards: 100 rare, 10 very rare, and 1 unique. The cards have two levels of value – collectible (sale, purchase, exchange) and in-game: the life of the “card” player must be monitored in reality – whether he is healthy, whether he went to the field and scored a goal. This process differs from taking care of Tamagotchi by the possibility of profit: every time a player scores a goal in a real match, the owner of his Sorare card earns real money.
Other Competitors to Sorare
In addition to Sorare, the world of NFT soccer is unfolding on other virtual marketplaces supporting the NFT protocol – for example, OpenSea, Rarible, Sorarebuzz, Soraredata, Soraremega. The cards are even traded on Ebay. Soccer NFT tokens are leading the bidding volumes, but the most expensive sales so far are on the basketball and baseball side. In January 2021, baseball player Mickey Mantle’s card was sold for $5.2 million.
Crypto and Sports: Beyond NFTs
The field of cryptocurrencies is connected to the world of sports not only through NFTs. The story of soccer clubs’ tokens began back in 2018 when PSG announced plans to issue its own coin. Clubs use the infrastructure of third-party IT platforms to issue tokens. The most popular of these is Socios- which is used by such title clubs as Barcelona, Juventus, Roma, and Atletico Madrid.
What is Fan Token Offering?
Socios and its founder Alexandre Dreyfus can be called the authors of the concept of FTO – Fan Token Offering. Back in 2018, the platform released its cryptocurrency – Chiliz (CHZ) on the Ethereum blockchain, and in November 2019, Juventus Turin held its first FTO on the platform.
Since the fall of 2019, Chiliz has been traded on Binance, one of the largest crypto exchanges by trading volume. In March this year, the altcoin’s price rose 700% in a week. In 2020, soccer clubs earned more than $30 million on Chiliz, and this year the planned income is $100 million, the CEO of the project Alexander Dreyfus told in an interview.
Owning fan-tokens allows fans to participate in the life of the team: for example, this is how the song playing after a goal was chosen for Juventus, a new motto for Milan, and the inscription on the captain’s armband for PSG.
Conclusion
As the world of cryptocurrencies expands year after year, its merger into the sporting arena is only going to grow bigger as other popular sports are also looking for a way in, in order to capitalize on NFTs, tokens and beyond. The coming times will tell us whether this experiment will be successful or not.
