Getting Started on Sorare Fantasy Football – A Beginner’s Guide

Sorare guide

To some, it’s an exciting fantasy football game. Collectors may look at it as the logical digital evolution of panini stickers and top trumps cards, while others will view it as a way to use your football knowledge to trade players, make money and earn rewards. Whatever category you fall into, the process of getting started on Sorare is roughly the same. In this beginners Sorare guide, we’ll run through what to expect from your first few days, weeks and months on the platform, finishing off with some handy tips and Sorare strategies that should help get your journey off to a successful start.

This guide was fully updated in October 2023 following updates for the 2023/24 season. It will hopefully explain how you progress on Sorare, either as a free user or as somebody looking to buy cards. If you still have questions after reading it, you can get in touch via @sorarelaliga on twitter.


Sorare Guide – Getting Started in 2023/24


Sign Up to Sorare

As outlined in our Sorare review, joining the platform is very simple and straightforward. Given this is not technically a gambling platform, there are no long security checks to go through, no bank details to enter and no deposit is required to get going and you can play the free version of the game as long as you want.

Signing up is best done using an affiliate or referral link. Almost every Sorare content creator will have one and in truth it doesn’t really matter which one you use as all come with the same basic offer since October 2023 (new users no longer get free cards).

You can sign up here for $20 of credits which will be activated if you end up buying five cards from auction. The credits can be used within seven days to claim a 50% discount on new cards.

Sorare discount code
*Users must buy 5 cards from auction to get $20 of credits. The credits can then be used in the next 7 days for a 50% discount on new cards.

Choose your Sport and League

After signing up, the first screen you will see is the sports page. As well as football, you also have basketball (we have a separate Sorare NBA guide) and baseball to choose from. You can play all three from the same account, but assuming you’re mostly here for the football, click “Play Now” under the football tab.

Sorare leagues

At this point, you are currently given a choice of the big five European leagues, plus the MLS, all of which are competitions covered by Sorare. It’s not actually that important which one you choose, as you can still play the free weekly competitions for all five leagues later. However it’s probably best to pick the one you’re most familiar with initially.

Pick your First Draft

This is the first point where you may actually need to use your brain and football knowledge a bit. Whichever league you choose, you’ll be directed to the draft screen where you must pick eight players that will form your initial squad for your first matchday on Sorare.

You have a budget of 400 points to choose from and must select two goalkeepers, two defenders, two midfielders and two forwards. Only five of these players will actually score each matchday but your squad will carry over to each subsequent gameweek with a maximum of two swaps (transfers) permitted before each new round of fixtures.

The points value attached to each player (effectively their price) is taken from their average fantasy score over the last 15 games. In each match, every active player gets a score of between 0 and 100 according to the Sorare points scoring matrix. This works differently and is much more advanced than other fantasy football games with smaller in-game actions such as successful passes, tackles and interceptions rewarded, as well as decisive ones such as goals and assists.

Sorare squad draft

It’ll take a bit of time to get a feel for which types of players score well on Sorare and while there is clearly some correlation with other fantasy games (good players are still good players!), just picking your usual FPL players may not be the smartest way to go. For example, one of the best scoring Premier League players on Sorare (as of October 2023) is Manchester City’s Rodri who has a brilliant all-round game. However on Fantasy Premier League, his lack of decisive actions compared to other midfielders means he’s not that valuable.

There are various strategies you could use when it comes to your draft picks. You want to find the balance between picking the best five players for the next round of games, whilst also having one eye on future gameweeks. Using fixture difficulty planners such as the Premier League FDR or our LaLiga fixture difficulty chart may help.

There is also something to be said for choosing good players who may have been slightly out of form or are just coming back from injuries as their prices will be lower than usual. Whenever you transfer a player out, you only get back his original cost rather than current value (his buy price will go up or down each gameweek as his Last 15 average changes). That means top players returning from injury issues, such as Vini Junior on LaLiga matchday 9, can often be picked up really cheaply.

It’s also worth noting that you can only pick a maximum of two players from any one team so it’s worth taking a bit of time to think about what the best combinations might be, particularly in leagues where there are one or two really dominant sides.

Pick your Team

Sorare team

Once you have your eight player squad, you’ll be invited to name your first team. All fantasy games on Sorare involve five players rather than eleven and most feature a captain. In the free league-specific competitions, your captain gets a 50% bonus.

You will need to pick a goalkeeper and your outfielders can form a 2-1-1, 1-2-1 or 1-1-2 formation. Note that the three players you don’t pick, do NOT act as substitutes. If one of your players gets injured or doesn’t feature at all, he will score 0. Therefore it’s important you are confident that your 5 players are all going to play and preferably start!

Once you’ve named your team, you’ll have completed the initial onboarding process and will reach the main Sorare interface for the first time. At this point, your card gallery (accessible from the “My Club” menu tab) should have eight Common cards – the players you just chose in the draft. By clicking on “Play” you will be able to see the lineup you have submitted and you can go back and edit your choices at any point before the gameweek deadline (Tuesdays & Fridays).

What other tournaments can you enter as a “free” Sorare user?

All tournaments on Sorare are free to enter but without buying any cards (more details on that further down this Sorare getting started guide), you’ll initially be restricted just to Common card tournaments.

Common cards do not carry any real value (they can’t be transferred to/from other managers) but you can increase the size of your gallery to 48 Common cards by simply repeating the above process and completing the draft and team selection for the other four major European leagues and the MLS. This can be done from the “Play” tab.

Sorare free to play tournaments

Most weekends during the regular European football season, you’ll therefore be able to submit a team for each of the five Common-only amateur tournaments. If you do really well and finish in the top 200, you will win your first gold-coloured Limited card. These are key to progressing on Sorare and will allow you to take the next step on your journey by entering extra tournaments.

However it’s worth noting that actually winning a Limited card may take many months given Common tournaments can attract 100,000+ entrants with only 200 winning rewards. Without buying a Limited card (the cheapest ones sell for less than €1/£1/$1), you might need to be very patient before you can take that next step up the ladder, although there is no limit on how long you can play Common tournaments for.


Buying Cards


Buying a few cards will fast-track the jump from Common to Limited tournaments. To do that, you can either deposit funds into your cash wallet (Euros, Pounds or US Dollars are accepted) which you can then use to buy players or you can pay for cards directly using a credit card.

Buying Cards

There are two main ways to buy player cards on Sorare:

  • Auctions

Sorare is constantly releasing new cards onto the market. These can be found by clicking on the “Market” tab on the main menu on the left and selecting “Auctions”. The auctions usually run for around 24-72 hours and operate on a simple highest bidder wins basis.

You will initially see all the auctions that are nearing completion but there are a range of filters on the left-hand-side which you can use to locate targets. You can enter a “max bid” which will see you automatically better other bids on certain cards until that price point is reached.

  • Via Manager Sales

Secondly, other Sorare managers place the cards they are looking to sell up for sale and you can see these via the “Manager Sales” section under the “Market” tab. It’s probably easier just to use the search tool (located in the top right of your screen near the wallet on desktops) to locate the players you are interested in though.

It’s worth noting that players are often listed at inflated prices, so do your research and be sure you’re reasonably confident in your ability to properly value players before diving in here. It does take some time to do this well and there are some useful Sorare tips at the bottom of this page which should help you reach that point quicker.

Sorare cards for sale

If you have enough funds in your wallet, you can get any card by simply clicking the “Buy” tab underneath it. However, to get a better deal, most managers make offers below the list price which the other manager can then choose to accept, reject or make a counter offer. To make an offer, click on any card and then click on “Trade” which will open up a box where you can submit your bid.

Note that some cards may also be listed in ETH. This was the original currency on Sorare and some managers prefer to trade using it, although most managers are happy to buy/sell cards using cash now.

It’s also possible to offer cards in exchange for the card you want to buy. You can do this by clicking “Add a Card” in the offer pop-up box whenever you click “Trade”.

Understanding Scarcities on Sorare

These are the four scarcities on Sorare that you can buy cards of:

ScarcityMaximum number of cards issued per player per season
Limited1000
Rare100
Super Rare10
Unique1

These scarcity cards are fundamentally different to free Common cards in that they are actual digital collectibles and have a maximum number that can be minted in any one season. If you win or buy one, it is yours to keep and use as you wish. You can use it to play in tournaments, sell it to another manager for cash or maybe even exchange it for another manager’s card.

Given the supply is greater, Limited cards are the cheapest to buy while Uniques are the most expensive with only one minted per season. For most new users on Sorare, Limited cards will be the most logical ones to target next but you don’t have to follow the progression path exactly as Sorare maps it out.

Managers with more funds could opt to skip Limiteds altogether and target Rares or Super Rares where both the costs and rewards are much greater.


Sorare Progression to Pro Mode – Common to Limited


There are several tournaments that bridge the gap between the Common and Limited tiers of Sorare (essentially the free and paid versions of the game) where you can use a mixture of the two cards. Here is a summary of those tournaments:

TournamentScarcitiesPlayersCap
Kick-Off1 Limited & 4 Commons (Captain must be Limited)League-SpecificNone
Specialist4/5 Limiteds & 0/1 Common (Captain must be Limited)League-Specific270 Points
Limited Cap 2204/5 Limiteds & 0/1 Common (Captain must be Limited)Any220 Points

This is the point where your head might start to explode as a new user so don’t worry if you don’t instantly take all of this in!

Basically, the first tournament to open up when you win or buy your first Limited card is Kick-Off (its name changed in October 2023 so you may see it referred to elsewhere as Semi Pro). This works similarly to the league specific amateur tournaments, in that you pick your five man teams from the eight Common cards you have, only this time you have to include one Limited card who will also serve as your captain.

Therefore if your first Limited card is a LaLiga player, LaLiga Kick-Off will open up. Get a Limited card from each of the big five European leagues and you’ll be able to enter five Kick-Off teams each week as well as your five amateur ones. However this tier is only open to managers with less than 10 Limited cards in total so it will disappear once you reach that point.

As you move to higher tournaments, the potential rewards also get bigger. Once you have 4 Limited cards from one of the big European leagues, Specialist will open up for that league. You can still use one Common and it’s probably advisable to make that your goalkeeper given they tend to be the most expensive cards to buy. This is also the first cap competition and you will need to select five players within a 270 point budget. Again these points figures relate to a player’s last 15 game average.

La Liga Specialist

Alternatively, you could skip Specialist altogether and look at Cap 220 which will most likely be cheaper to compile a team for. That’s partly because the cap is lower so you’ll need lower scoring players who should cost less. You can also use players from any league or country here, as long as it is covered by Sorare and has matches that week.

Therefore, you could for example field a Cap 220 team consisting of a Premier League Common goalkeeper, a J-League Limited defender, an MLS Limited midfielder, and a couple of Limited forwards from any of the many other European leagues that are covered.

If you’re primarily a fan of one of the smaller leagues, this will be the first point at which you can use your cards. It’s also the last tournament that allows the use of a Common card which aren’t allowed according to Sorare rules above this point.


Sorare Progression – Limited Only Tournaments


As mentioned before, you can still keep playing the Common tournaments (with the exception of Kick-Off which goes invisible once you have 10 Limiteds) even as you move up the Sorare ladder. A bunch of different Limited tournaments will be your next port of call, although remember you don’t have to play every single tournament to progress as you’ll need a really large gallery to do that. That’s because aside from the free Commons which offer a bit more usability, other cards can only be used in one tournament per gameweek.

Limited-Only TournamentPlayersCapThreshold Payments
Cap 240Any240 Points$5 for 280 Points
Cap 270Any270 PointsNo
All StarAnyNoNo
Under 23Any (aged 23 or under on the previous July 1st)NoNo
Champion EuropeBig 5 European leaguesNoNo
Challenger EuropeOther European leaguesNoNo
Second Division Europe2nd tiers in England, France, Germany, Spain & ItalyNoNo
AmericaTop leagues in North & South AmericaNoNo
AsiaJapanese, Korean & Chinese leaguesNoNo

When buying cards and constructing your galleries, you want to think about which tournaments to target and not all of them open all year-round. For example Asia is closed throughout the winter months while most European tournaments don’t run during the summer.

Limited-only tournaments offer greater freedom to pick players from any league with no league restrictions on the cap, all-star or Under-23 competitions which are truly global. However you can opt to target a specific region or league if you have a deeper knowledge of football in one country or part of the world that you think will give you an edge.

For example, you could construct a gallery solely of Scottish Premiership cards and enter Challenger Europe, Under 23, All Star, Cap 240 and Cap 270 each gameweek in Scotland.

rewards on Sorare

All of these tournaments have Limited cards on offer as rewards and you stand a far greater chance of winning cards than in the Common tournaments. Some tournaments also offer cash prizes for high places, but the most interesting for new users playing Sorare on a low budget may be the Cap 240 mode.

Here you just need to hit a very attainable score of 280 points to win $5 worth of your chosen currency. That may not sound like a lot, but you can easily buy another budget card or two with that and it can quickly build given you have a decent chance of competing for that $5 threshold payment every week and potentially twice per week when there are midweek fixtures.

At the time of writing, Cap 240 and Cap 270 tournaments also offer you a small chance of winning Rare cards which will enable you to make that next big leap on Sorare.


Sorare Progression – Limited to Rare


Each jump between scarcity levels features some tournaments which allow you to play with two different scarcities. That’s because there is a significant jump in prices when you move to a higher scarcity level which can be difficult to bridge without putting a lot more cash in. To give you an idea of Sorare prices, we’ll look at a couple of examples.

As of October 2023, a good scoring player like Villarreal’s Dani Parejo costs about $10 for a Limited card but about $100 for a Rare, a 10-fold increase reflecting the decreased supply and bigger prizes at the Rare level.

However you don’t need stars to compete for thresholds and a cheaper player such as Celta’s Fran Beltran costs only around $1 for a Limited and $25-30 for a Rare.

So it is possible to make the jump up from Common to Limited or Limited to Rare without spending a huge amount if you really know your football and can find a few players that you think are undervalued by the market as it’s not always the superstars that perform best.

The first step up from Limited-only tournaments is Rare Kick-Off. This tournament is only open to managers with less than 10 Rare cards so you won’t be competing against managers with huge Rare galleries.

Even if you only have 1 Rare, you can enter Rare Kickoff by filling out the rest of your team with Limited cards and all rewards are Rare cards. In theory you could keep entering Kickoff and try to reach the point where you have at least 4 Rares.

TournamentScarcitiesPlayersCap
Rare Kick-Off1 Rare & 4 Limiteds (Captain must be Rare)AnyNone
Rare Cap 2204/5 Rares & 0/1 LimitedAny220

At that point, Rare Cap 220 will open up and it works in much the same way as Limited Cap 220 with a 220 point budget and the option to use a Limited goalkeeper (or outfielder) to complete your team. To fully move up to Rare-only competitions (detailed below) though, you’ll need a Rare goalkeeper and these can be expensive!

It is probably worth adding at this point, that there is absolutely no reason why you have to target higher scarcity levels. If you enjoy playing Limited and get a feel for how to value cards and play the tournaments at that level, you can keep doing that until your heart’s content. The jump from Limited to Rare is a particularly steep one and you’ll need to weigh up whether it’s worth targeting or not, depending on your budget.


Sorare Progression – Rare Only Tournaments


Rare cards on Sorare

The prices of Rare cards (the red ones) can run into the hundreds or even thousands of £/$/€ for the truly elite players such as Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappé. However you don’t need the very elite stars to compete for prizes and you can often find much cheaper players in Asia or the Americas who score just as well, or in many cases better, than some of the big names in Europe.

To really succeed at Sorare, you will need to put some time into scouting players and deciding on what your best strategy is going to be relative to your budget.

Rare-Only TournamentPlayersCapThreshold Payments
Cap 240Any280 Points$50 for 280 Points
Cap 270Any270 PointsNo
All StarAnyNoNo
Under 23Any (aged 23 or under on the previous July 1st)NoNo
Champion EuropeBig 5 European leaguesNoNo
Challenger EuropeOther European leaguesNoNo
Second Division Europe2nd tiers in England, France, Germany, Spain & ItalyNoNo
AmericaTop leagues in North & South AmericaNoNo
AsiaJapanese, Korean & Chinese leaguesNoNo

The Rare tournament structure works in exactly the same way as the Limited one that is detailed above with global, regional and cap competitions. However you will mostly be rewarded with Rare cards at this level with some tournaments offering the chance to win Super Rares (blue cards).

The big difference comes in Rare Cap 240 where you win a $50 reward if you hit 280 points. You’ll need to think strategically to hit that regularly with players with home or easier fixtures more likely to outperform their points average.

Having a bigger collection of Rares will give you a better chance of targeting 280 points on a weekly basis or you can trade in and out of players by considering factors such as fixture difficulty or by buying players who have been out of form or injured and are likely to score better in future gameweeks.

It’s very possible to win cards that are worth several hundred £/$/€ in most Rare tournaments while if you manage to hit the podiums, things can even potentially move into four figures. Unless the stars truly align, you’re going to need some really good players to do that though.


Sorare Full Progression Map


Sorare progression

The above image shows how it is in theory possible to start out at Limited Cap 220 and work all the way up to Unique level, just by entering tournaments and winning cards. In reality though, making it all the way from Limited to Unique would be almost impossible without putting a fair bit of money into the platform and buying lots of cards.

For the purposes of this Sorare beginner’s guide, we won’t say too much about Super Rares or Uniques as only a small percentage of managers on Sorare play the game at those levels. The best cards at both scarcity levels are very expensive to buy – Haaland’s 2021/22 Unique card sold for $678,000, although valuations have dipped significantly since then!

Should you be in the position where you’re looking to play Sorare on a large budget, the progression from Rare to Super Rare and Super Rare to Unique, works in much the same way as detailed above for Limited and Rare cards. You can play the same tournaments at each scarcity level (Cap 240 offers $200 threshold payments at Super Rare and $500 at Unique level).

If you’ve fully researched Sorare and do have some significant funds to throw at this, there is probably a case for skipping Limiteds altogether and focusing on Rares, Super Rares and Uniques which are less competitive and typically require lower scores to win. Remember that you can start at any point on the Sorare progression map above and you can pick and choose which tournaments to enter at any scarcity level as long as you have enough cards.


Selling Cards


You won’t need to know much about selling cards initially but will probably begin to see how it works from your experiences of buying your first Sorare cards. Depending on your strategy, it may not be too long before you need to sell players.

If you’re more trading focused or are starting on a small budget, buying cheap undervalued cards and selling for a profit when they rise can quickly help you build a bigger cash balance. Even if you’re not looking to do that, you may start to receive offers from other managers and will receive a notification should that happen.

If you’re actively looking to sell a card, you can significantly encourage these offers by listing your players as for sale. To do this, first go to “My Club” in the main menu and then click on “See My Cards”. This is probably the most important screen on Sorare as it shows your entire collection.

Sorare selling a player

To list a player, click on the card you are looking to sell, click “List My Card”, set your asking price and then it’ll be listed in the transfer market for between a day and 7 days depending on your choice. You can simply relist him again if he doesn’t sell.

You’ll get a notification if someone buys the card or makes an offer on it. Before setting your asking price, you may want to go to that player’s screen and see what price other managers have listed him at. You’re unlikely to attract many offers unless you list your card at a competitive price, however go too low and you risk losing your card for below the market rate.

Remember that Common cards cannot be sold to other managers so the option to list cards will only open up when you get your first card from one of the main scarcities.


Quick Sorare Tips for Beginners


  1. Train your Players – Each gameweek, it’s worth entering your three Academy teams using some of your best players who don’t have games. Even if they don’t have a match, they will still earn something called XP which adds a small percentage to your player’s score each gameweek which can make all the difference should two managers name very similar or identical teams. You can submit training teams via the “Mix” tab in the “Play” section.
  2. Scout Players & Use SorareData – By far the best tool for scouting and trying to value players is SorareData. It offers far more info on each player than you get on Sorare itself and you’ll be able to see what fantasy scores everyone has posted over the last 40 games and see every price they’ve previously been exchanged at. There are both free and paid tiers but you can still get a load of useful info from the free version which should be fine for Sorare beginners.
  3. Find your EdgeThis is a global fantasy football game and if you are extremely knowledgeable about one of the less popular leagues, you can find a real edge. Few managers on Sorare are experts on the K-League or J-League for example but many still regularly buy and sell Asian players and enter the Asian tournaments. Even if you’re not, you may wish to decide to really get into one of the smaller leagues, watch some matches and educate yourself.
  4. Take Advantage of Short-Termism – There is a large amount of short-term thinking on Sorare with managers often purely focused on ensuring they have the right cards to field teams on the next matchday rather than looking at the bigger picture. If you’re willing to play the longer game, buying players out of season, or merely those who are injured or out of form, is a strategy that can really pay off. Typically, players significantly increase in value when they hit form or as the start of their respective seasons draws close. With proper scouting and research, you can really take advantage of these kinds of long-term trends.
Sorare lineup
A Sorare academy lineup

It can take many weeks, months or even years before you truly start to understand how to make money on Sorare by using the best strategies and approaches. Take your time and don’t worry if you don’t understand everything straight away. There is a big worldwide community who will mostly be happy to answer any questions or doubts you may have.

As a more general point, patient Sorare managers are often the most successful ones so don’t feel as though you have to rush into buying or selling cards. Remember that any cards you do get are good to use for as long as a player is active in one of the many covered leagues, even if they transfer to another club. For a younger player like Barcelona’s Pedri, you could potentially be able to use his card in fantasy tournaments for the next 15 years, assuming Sorare is still around then!


2024 Update – Sorare is changing!

Sorare has recently announced sweeping changes that will change how the platform looks from August 2024 onwards – we’ll do a full update of this guide early in the 2024/25 season when everything has been finalised.

In the mean-time, some of the competitions and tournament structures covered in this guide may be changed or discontinued. Getting started on Sorare is also changing with a new game mode called Sorare Rivals taking over as the free version and best way to try the platform out before buying cards.


Get in touch via @sorarelaliga with any questions and if you’re yet to join Sorare, remember to activate our sign up offer (or another one – they’re all the same!) when you join.


This Sorare guide contains affiliate links to Sorare and was last fully updated in October 2023. Do your own research before putting any money into the platform!

sorare content
About Sorare LaLiga 38 Articles
Sorare manager since 2020. Providing Spanish football expertise, Sorare guides, analysis and strategies for LaLiga Expert whilst also trying to compete for prizes each gameweek on the global fantasy football platform.

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