Thursday marked a historic day for the Sorare global fantasy football platform as LaLiga joined in full meaning you can now buy NFT’s of players at all 20 clubs in the Spanish top flight. There were previously just four Spanish clubs on Sorare but over the course of the day, the rest of LaLiga launched with the first auctions for Barcelona players in particular generating a lot of interest.
The deal was announced on social media across the day with members of the Sorare team in Spain for the launch along with a host of past and present stars of the Spanish league. As expected, Sorare investor and ambassador Gerard Pique was involved as we finally got answers as to why he has been posting selfies of himself in recent months.
Each club was given a thirty minute time slot where their cards arrived on the market place and they responded by using their own social media channels to promote the launch. As is usually the case on Sorare, plenty of 1st edition cards went for very high prices with standouts including the first Pedri rare fetching 2.04 ETH (approximately $7000) while Frenkie de Jong and Ansu Fati went for similar amounts.
How does LaLiga benefit?
This is a deal that in theory should benefit everyone. Sorare has already added some full European leagues such as the Eredivisie and the Belgian Jupiler League but LaLiga may feel as though they have jumped ahead of rival “big five” leagues in the race to embrace NFT’s and the growing trend of digital football playing cards.
Of course, there is also a financial incentive. This is going to prove a useful money maker for LaLiga and its clubs, at a time when Spanish football is in need of extra finances. The exact terms of the deal are unknown but LaLiga have essentially sold the licenses to Sorare to produce their NFT’s and should the platform ultimately to grow into something with millions of users, that could be very lucrative for football clubs in Spain and indeed elsewhere.
According to LaLiga supremo Javier Tebas, “this partnership with Sorare, the most exciting sports NFT project today, enables us to reach new audiences globally and gives existing fans additional ways they can get involved with the players and the clubs they love.”
The biggest league yet – A huge step for Sorare
For Sorare, this is another really significant step and it underlines their status as one of the biggest NFT projects globally and the clear dominant force in the world of football digital playing cards.
While they had secured individual licenses for some huge clubs, including the big two in Madrid previously, LaLiga is by far the most significant league they have added in full. That not only adds a large chunk of the world’s best footballers onto the platform but marks a major milestone on their journey towards the long-stated aim of adding the world’s top 20 global leagues, repeated again in the dynamic rewards announcement back in April.
Negotiating with other major leagues such as the Premier League, Serie A and the Bundesliga should get that bit easier now. Their ability to market the platform to new users will also be aided by their partnership with LaLiga which has a huge global audience.
LaLiga NFT’s – How to get Involved
There are plenty of reasons to gonboard now, particularly if you are a big fan of Spanish football. Sorare CEO Nicholas Julia responded to the addition of LaLiga by claiming “NFTs are the future of global sports fandom because they allow fans to come together and to feel ownership of the sports they love.”
For anyone with a background that involves collecting football cards or stickers, or in more recent times using FIFA Ultimate Team, this may be the logical next step in an increasingly digitised world.
It’s quite easy and free to sign up to Sorare*. You can try out the platform, see how it works and enter rookie tournaments using free common cards for an initial four week period. After that you need to start buying your own but that has got a lot cheaper thanks to the recent addition of Limited Cards.
If you want to know more about getting involved, you may also want to check out our getting started guide while if you have any questions, you can get in touch via @sorarelaliga on twitter.
*Signing up using this link will get you up to 12 free common cards immediately plus a free limited card (NFT) after your 5th purchase on the primary market.
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