UK Gambling Commission Flags NFT Fantasy Football Platform Sorare

The UK Gambling Commission is investigating popular fantasy football platform Sorare.com. The UKGC is investigating Sorare for operating outside the regulations outlined by the regulator. Sorare is not just a fantasy sports platform; it is also well known for trading NFT digital cards.

The UKGC claims that it is investigating the platform to determine whether it requires a gambling license to operate. Sorare’s management team has welcomed the investigation and is cooperating with the authorities to ensure that everything is above board. The platform, however, responded in an official statement stating that the firm’s legal experts had validated that the platform does not offer any form of regulated betting and was within its legal rights to operate without a license from the UKGC.

UKGC launched the investigation when it realized that a portion of Sorare.com’s customers was British, which means that all activities that were being carried out on the website by British citizens fall outside the UKGC’s regulations. In this regard, the UKGC sent a warning to British consumers using the platform to exercise caution before using the fantasy football platform.

Sorare has been offering its services to punters and sports fans in the UK since September 2020. Upon launching, the brand quickly attracted the attention of local football clubs seeking collaborations and partnerships. For instance, soon after its debut, Sorare secured a partnership with the 2020 Champions League Finalist, Paris Saint-Germain football club.

As a result of this partnership, Sorare has been creating digital collectibles for PSG players for almost a year now, making PSG Sorare’s 100th football club. Sorare is accessible internationally. However, the UK is among the platform’s biggest user base, which just goes to show how great the demand for fantasy football is in the country.

Following its partnership with PSG, collectors and gamers in the UK have been; buying, selling, and playing with limited edition player cards of well-known PSG players the likes of Neymar and Kylian Mbappé. Sorare’s partnership with football clubs like PSG will go a long way in allowing the brand to attract new customers, as well as investors. 

Sorare utilizes Blockchain technology to drum up digital scarceness, as well as easily establish which person owned which digital card of a player at any given time. This system helps to create trust among buyers while also giving collectors and investors unprecedented freedom. 

NFT digital cards have become more than just collectible these days though. These cards are also useful for players that take part in Sorare’s international fantasy football game that is held every weekend. In the coming years, Sorare will continue to work hard to establish itself as the go-to platform for all things digital cards and fantasy football.  Some other football clubs that have partnered up with Sorare include Juventus and Atletico de Madrid, as well as many clubs in the US and Asia.

Fantasy football and NFTs are growing in popularity

Fantasy football in the UK is a huge deal. The Fantasy Premier League alone reaches close to 8 million users and this number will continue rising in the coming years. The Fantasy Football market in Europe was estimated at approximately $900 million in 2018 and is expected to triple in the next 5 years. Expanding into European fantasy markets has, therefore, been a priority for platforms such as Sorare for a long time.

Sports trading cards are now mostly digital. Digital cards, which are known as moments are designed to appear on the screen in a floating and spinning format. Each floating and spinning cube represents a player and will even feature a highlight reel or video of the player. Digital cards were sprung into popularity after a Canadian tech company known as Dapper Labs forged a partnership with the NBA.

Startups and platforms such as Dapper Labs and Sorare make use of cryptocurrency technology Blockchain to create permanent certificates of ownership that cannot be copied or deleted. This Blockchain technology is the same one that is being used by artists to sell NFTs. For instance, a well-known American digital artist known as Beeple recently sold a piece for $70 million and recently unveiled a real-life sculpture that’s due for auction soon.

Moments can cost anywhere from $20 but can go as high as $210,000, which is how much LeBron James’ dunk recently went for. But it is not just NBA moments that are selling through the roof. Baseball cards are also experiencing a boom. Now, sports leagues are using the proceeds to stay afloat after being forced to endure a tough pandemic period.

With the rise of digital trading cards and NFTs, both sports leagues and esports markets are now being forced to explore more innovative ways of engaging fans, rewarding loyal fans, as well as ensuring that investors and sponsors get their return on investment. As a result, various sporting leagues, from top clubs like Barcelona and PSG to the NHL and NBA are investing in fan tokens to generate much-needed profits.

Sports leagues are using these sports cards to acquire and engage new customers while involving fans in the decision-making process. When fans purchase tokens, these tokens act as some sort of virtual currency that fans can use to unlock exclusive access and rewards. Fans also get to amass their tokens until they accumulate enough voting rights that give them the power to determine major team decisions such as the color of the players’ kits to even vote on the match line up and formation.

Apart from giving fans voting rights, fans can also exchange their tokens for collectibles, merchandise, as well as special game-day experiences. With most tokens selling out within minutes, sports leagues have raised millions of dollars for teams that have been struggling during the ongoing pandemic.

Final Thoughts

People have been trading digital cards for many years through various mobile apps. However, it is only recently that Blockchain technology has changed the way trading is done. Thanks to Blockchain, people can easily track ownership of digital assets like digital trading cards and NFTs, which has allowed sports leagues and athletes to generate new sources of revenue.