NFT fantasy sports game Sorare will now include players from all 20 clubs in the Premier League after striking a partnership with the association that is home to well known teams like Manchester United and Arsenal F.C.
Along with the announcement, Sorare announced several updates to its game, including the ability to compete against players only in the same league (like the Premier League), instead of just global or regional tournaments. It also added capped-mode competitions, in which the number of high-value players is limited, to make competition more rigorous.
The Premier League is the latest of several notable soccer leagues that Sorare has partnered with since the company was founded in 2018. It also has deals in place with top soccer leagues in France, Germany, Spain, and Italy.
But Aalok Kapoor, general manager of the company’s soccer division, said Sorare is still not close to achieving its full potential.
“I think we're only 20% done,” Kapoor told Fortune. “We have a long way to go.”
Unlike the NFT market as a whole, which contracted in 2022 because of the prolonged Crypto Winter, Sorare has experienced growth, recently reaching the 3 million user mark, according to the company. A report by blockchain analytics company DappRadar this week revealed that NFT and crypto-enabled games make up 49% of all daily blockchain activity.
Key to the company's plans to keep growing, Kapoor said, is building on the momentum of the FIFA World Cup. Sorare attracted 600,000 users to its platform during the international tournament that happens once every four years.
Two of its most important brand ambassadors, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé, made it to the World Cup final, with Messi clinching the most important trophy in international soccer.
Another important aspect of Sorare’s future plans are its ventures in the United States. Over the last couple of years, the Paris-based company has expanded in the U.S. It set up a New York City office and struck agreements with the National Basketball Association and the union representing its players, as well as Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer.
Kapoor said that its U.S.-based operations have led the company in terms of growth since 2020, and added that they would continue to grow because of the popularity of Premier League teams like Liverpool, Manchester United, and Manchester City among Americans.
“With the NBA, with the various leagues we have, with the EPL (English Premier League), with the MLB—it really does put us in that absolute top tier sports entertainment company,” Kapoor said. “I don't even think EA Sports (maker of the FIFA video game) has all these assets.
