The Web3 Future of Fantasy Sports
Too many reasons to count, folks love to collect things. Whatever it is, if you can get it, someone is going to collect it. However, not everyone is passionate about filling entire rooms – or crypto wallets – with massive collections without a clear way of interacting with them in mind.
In the case of NFTs, this experience is doubly true. Interactivity with NFTs is often limited to what the creator intended. In most cases, especially outside the blockchain gaming arena, that translates to NFT tools. So what if there was a NFT collectible designed with interactivity and play in mind? Answer: This is what Sorare aims to do.
What is Sorare?
Wondering what would happen if you could meaningfully interact with your NBA Top Shot NFTs? Besides shopping them, of course. Sorare hopes to realize this scenario for collectibles enthusiasts throughout the Web3 – seamlessly integrating fantasy sports leagues with NFT collecting.
In Sorare, users play as general managers of professional “fantasy” sports teams, building them out with NFT cards that represent a sport’s active roster of athletes. It is not that kind of a fantasy if you were expecting an experience similar to a pro-athlete version of the Pokémon trading card game. This is less of a “play” game and more of an interactive experience meant to deepen a sports fan’s enjoyment of a season. As such, the core gameplay loop is largely about managing a virtual team, competing against other users for points to see who was able to construct the statistically strongest team.
Through its unique format, Sorare provides sports fans with an experience that combines two of the biggest hobbies built on top of professional sports leagues: fantasy leagues and trading cards.
How does Sorare work?
Instead of acquiring players for fantasy teams via a draft, users do so via the acquisition of special NFT cards. Since these cards double as NFTs, player performance can be logged in real-time, and used as the basis for each player’s Player Score (PS) on any given day. This is calculated based on the statistical numbers of each athlete while they are out there actually playing the sport in the real world. In addition, users can choose to further increase the statistical value of the cards they hold by using Card Scores (CS), which award bonuses, potentially increasing any given player’s PS enough to lift a user over the edge and into a favorable position .
When a user is ready to test the strength of their team, they can pit a selection of their players against other users, earning in-game points with each win.
NFT cards that players receive are also divided into rarities, with common team cards freely available to players who want to try out Sorare first before investing money into the game. When players create a Sorare account and join one of the leagues, players are given sets of regular card packs to build their starting roster. That means if you’re looking to check out, say, Sorare’s NBA offerings, you probably won’t get a LeBron card right away. But you might stumble into a Westbrook.
Sorare is designed to go beyond serving just one sport’s fan base. Sorare began development by securing licensing agreements with various football teams around Europe, but the company’s scope has since quickly expanded to include multiple sports. Currently fans of baseball, football, and basketball can enjoy dedicated Sorare modes.
Additionally, with the game’s continued development and success, it has also been able to attract some of the biggest names in the sports world as investors. So far, soccer legend Lionel Messi and tennis icon Serena Williams are among Sorare’s sports investors, and that’s sure to follow as the game continues to get bigger and better.
But why does it matter that Sorare is out there? Simply put, it’s a glimpse into the possibilities of the future everyone in the room, and that includes sports fans. While the premise of actually owning digital assets may not seem like a big deal to many, sports fans benefit the most from this new meta. You can only have so many Steph Curry posters on your wall – but you can theoretically store an infinite amount in your crypto wallet.
