how you can use NFTs to play fantasy sports
Gaming has long been at the forefront of innovation, says Nicolas Julia, CEO and co-founder of Sorare. His firm brings together people who love sports, collectibles and community, and serves as a vehicle to learn about NFTs and get comfortable with the technology.
On this week Podcast for most innovative companies, Julia explains how he has translated a love for football and a passion for collecting into a community supported by athletes. Sorare has quickly grown to include major league baseball and will soon also include the NBA, all under one premise: Own Your Game.
Ownership is a primary concern for Julia, and something he has tried to put back into the hands of players and collectors alike. “There are billions of dollars spent every day in gaming, and I think it’s crazy to think that today the vast majority of [game items] is not owned by the players, he says. “They can’t resell them, they can’t move them, and we want to help change that.”
Therefore, he hopes that those who collect through Sorare can also connect to the physical world, either by playing or watching sports or both. “It is something that is very important to me. I really don’t want to contribute to this hyper-connectivity we live in. I want to at least help stabilize it, if not reduce it.”
He says he wants to be a “good” actor. “I think that when any radical innovation emerges, there are a lot of good actors and a lot of bad actors, too, and a lot of people under the hype who come for bad reasons and that’s difficult for everybody.” As he explains it, the debate and dialogue around NFTs is a side effect of people experiencing and using something new to the world they live in.
But as Julia says, he’s not really in the NFT business – he’s in the collectibles and fantasy sports business. “We don’t market NFTs. It’s just the underlying technology that makes sense for the product we’re building. If you want to preserve scarcity in the digital world, you need NFTs. If you want to enable portability of your accounts and make them usable in different games or experiences, this is the right fit.”
“The conversation in the last couple of months has been about NFTs as a space, as a category, as a market, but it’s none of that – it’s just a technology,” he says. Or, as he sees it, a means to an end. A form of technology that makes connections—with friends, with passions, with community—possible. A collectible that in itself facilitates connection.
Sorare, Julia explains, is ultimately a game, and it’s fun. “It’s really exciting for sports fans because they can play all the roles that exist on a team,” he says. That includes the roles of owner, sporting director, coach and, of course, player, as well as all the related responsibilities that come with each, from tracking talent, to management, to playing. “You really own these cards and you can play them throughout the season and you can sell them freely.”
Although it is the technology that facilitates true ownership, Julia is adamant that fans should experience the benefits without getting bogged down in the technicalities. By comparing Sorare to Spotify, he explains it this way: when you listen to a playlist, you are concerned with enjoying the music – and that’s how it should be. Yes, that music was brought to you by artificial intelligence, but that’s just a detail that doesn’t need explaining.
Listen to the episode for the full interview.
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