FACTS AND FIGURES

Here you will find important and unimportant facts and findings about the game Sorare.

Innovation through scarcity

  • Digital objects can be newly unique .

  • All cards have a unique identifier and their transaction history is recorded in the blockchain, which is accessible to everyone.

  • Players can resell their cards to anyone - inside or outside the Sorare ecosystem. They can reuse their cards in other non-Sorare experiences.

Each year, a maximum of 1,111 cards can be minted for a specific player.

  • 1000 limited cards (yellow)

  • 100 rare cards (red)

  • 10 very rare cards (blue)

  • 1 unique card (black/brown)

Leverage

Sorare's rules are recorded in the blockchain and cannot be changed. Sorare has two levers to control supply:

  • The decision not to release the full 1,111 cards when there are not enough players.

  • Release a new scarcity when there are too many players. This is exactly what happened this summer when Sorare released the "limited" rarity cards.

Maps

15% of minted cards are not sold on the primary market but issued as rewards.

Cornerstones of Sorare

Clubs
Sorare concludes license agreements with soccer clubs and leagues in order to exploit their rights (club logo, jerseys, images of players). It can be assumed that Sorare concludes multi-year contracts with clubs and leagues in order to create a barrier to entry for new market participants. The clubs and leagues receive license fees (estimated to be between 10% and 20% for the first sale and between 1% and 2% for the second sale). They also ask for advances on these license fees - which partly explains why Sorare conducted massive funding rounds.

The technology
Sorare is built on the Ethereum blockchain. To avoid the scalability issues associated with Ethereum (high gas charges and low transaction speed, the expansion of network size, capacity and consequently security), Starkware's technology is used.

Fantasy football game
Sorare cards are used to create teams of 5 players who compete against each other in twice-weekly fantasy leagues. Thousands of virtual teams compete based on the statistical performance of the selected players in real games. Sorare has partnered with Opta Sports - a leading data provider - to develop its own scoring system. Each card is scored from 0 to 100 points, which are then multiplied by a bonus factor.

Success model

Sorare's success model is that they retain users for the longer term. Since Sorare's full launch in December 2019, the number of paying users (owners of at least one card) increased from 500 to 55,000 (x110), while monthly primary market revenue increased from €10,000 to €17 million (x1700). When announcing Series A, Sorare publicly shared that they have a 3-month retention rate of 70%, a Netflix-like rate.

Another trait of Sorare is the re-investment of users. Most players have invested 10 times their original budget one year after registering on Sorare. The company is on track to reach €200,000 GMV (gross merchandise volume) with 50,000 paying users. That's an average turnover of €4,000 per user, a figure unprecedented in the games industry.

Marketing (or not)

Sorare has achieved the strong growth almost without paid marketing. Sorare gets viral attention thanks to club announcements and posts by footballers on social media (many of them use Sorare, and big names are also investors - Andre Schurrle, Antoine Griezmann, Rio Ferdinand, Cesar Azpilicueta).

Sorare has also developed a referral programme. The recruiter and the new user each receive a limited edition card as a reward once the new user has bought five cards at auction. There is also an affiliate programme for influencers to attract more and more Twitch streamers to the game. Affiliates can receive up to 10 % commission on each referred purchase.

Key factors

Sorare has created a unique game that combines crypto, fantasy football and card collecting into a single experience. Sorare is neither a copycat nor a non-crypto experience brought to the crypto world. Consequently, Sorare has unlimited potential as a business. The platform is aimed at different target groups: Some are crypto enthusiasts who are interested in the collector aspect. Others are Sorare traders who are very active in the market and are trying to identify market inefficiencies. The last part, of course, are casual football fans who focus on the fantasy game.

Sorare is easy to explain to a mainstream audience. The collectible aspect and the emotional charge can be compared to Panini cards that all generations know. The mechanics of the fantasy game can easily be compared to Football Manager or a fantasy football game. The trading part is familiar to any Fifa Ultimate Team player. The value of Sorare is also very easy to point out with this methodology. Unlike Panini cards, your cards cannot be degraded, reproduced or lost. Unlike Football Manager or MPG, you can turn your knowledge into money. Unlike Fifa Ultimate Team, you can reuse your cards every year.

What will Sorare look like in 5 years?

Building a Twitch-like experience for football matches
We will not be surprised if Sorare buys broadcast rights from national leagues to stream football matches. It will be able to complement this with a social layer similar to Twitch and a gaming layer that integrates Sorare NFTs.

Building a suite of tools for football clubs to engage and monetise their audience
For the first time in their history, football clubs are able to monetise their online presence. Sorare can use this position to sell them additional digital services and help them build an omnichannel audience engagement platform. In addition to an annual subscription to attend your favourite teams' matches, you could gain access to additional digital perks such as NFT tickets, access to specific games or communities, etc.

Building an open ecosystem that supports NFT cards from Sorare
Sorare's NFT cards are therefore transferable to other experiences. So an ecosystem has naturally emerged that mixes soccer games and tools to get better at Sorare. At some point, Sorare will be detrimental to building that ecosystem as it provides grants to projects in that ecosystem. It is possible that Sorare NFT cards will also be used in non-sport gaming experiences. For example, you will be able to have a gallery with your Sorare cards or use a Sorare NFT card as an avatar for other gaming experiences.

Sorare will make women's football mainstream
Sorare's fantasy game has the superpower to change habits. Smaller leagues in Sorare, such as the Jupiler League (Belgium) or the J-League (Japan), have already found a whole new audience that won't let them go. We predict that the same phenomenon will happen for women's soccer.

It will expand to other sports and then to other industries
Sorare's latest funding will be used to develop new geographical areas and new sports. A new office is being opened in New York and top talent is being recruited. Our guess: they will start with hockey, baseball, basketball and tennis. "Sorare" is also too generic to think they will limit themselves to sports. Sorare will be the brand that translates scarce realities into digital scarce objects in the metaverse. These can be trainers, experiences or even endangered species.

It develops and sponsors its own real competitions
Instead of friendly matches at the beginning of the season, clubs will compete in a Sorare friendly tournament with VIP rights for the Sorare community.

Bringing fans closer together in the physical world
We envision Sorare bars where football matches will be broadcast and where fans can meet, watch matches, buy digital tickets and real jerseys and discuss their players' performances. Physical experiences will be part of the reward system, payments will be made via the Sorare wallet.