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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Robert Mann

The SPFL and Sorare fantasy football deal in focus from Ajax controversy to Rangers absence

The Scottish top-flight, minus Rangers, has become the latest league to join the Sorare community - despite the company coming under intense scrutiny in recent weeks.

Sorare are involved with more than 240 clubs around the world including Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Liverpool and boasts Antoine Griezmann as an investor and Gerard Pique as a strategic advisor.

And Sorare have now expanded into their eleventh league by teaming up with the SPFL to cover Scotland's top flight.

Before that move Ajax coach Erik ten Haag, while trying to dodge questions over his future, was also quizzed over reports that his players were using Sorare to gain financially.

It has been claimed that Ajax players Davy Klaasen and Daley Blind, both Holland internationals, profited financially from dressing room information as they inadvertently leaked their team's line-up.

Before last weekend's cup KNVB Cup final defeat to PSV, Klaasen and Blind both bought an NFT of goalkeeper and teammate Maarten Stekelenburg, while selling an NFT of fellow first-team goalkeeper Andre Onana.

Later that same day, it became clear that Stekelenburg - and not first-choice keeper Onana - would be between the sticks.

Interestingly, Blind and Klaassen already put their NFT picture of Onana up for sale before this news came out - leading to much controversy.

"I don’t know anything," said Ten Hag, before adding: "I will not announce the line-up until Sunday morning. Can players make money from this?"

On the topic of the Ajax controversy, a spokesperson for Sorare told the Daily Record: "We are reviewing recent reports of unfair behaviour by professional football players and will take action as necessary to ensure fair play for our community.

"Sorare's top priority is building a fun and fair platform for sports fans. We do not condone any unfair behaviour by any of our users and are actively adapting our game rules to ensure that our fantasy game is a level playing field for all."

What is Sorare?

Sorare is a non-fungible token (NFT) platform where users can buy, sell, trade, and manage a virtual team with digital player cards.

Many football clubs and competitions work together with Sorare and the Dutch Eredivisie club Ajax also has an agreement with the platform.

A number of Ajax players, including Daley Blind and Davy Klaassen, even trade in the football NFTs on Sorare.

How much is it worth?

Sorare raised $680million in funding last September, valuing the company at $4.3billion.

It says it has 1.5million registered users worldwide.

Why are Rangers not involved?

As explained by Sorare: "The SPFL Sorare collection will include players from 11 cinch Premiership Clubs.

"Rangers has advised the SPFL that it has pre-existing conflicting commercial obligations and that it is therefore not required to participate.

"It is Sorare's goal to onboard Rangers as soon as we can."

The Ibrox club have opted out of the agreement due to their two-year partnership with Sportemon Go.

What will the other SPFL clubs get out of the deal?

The cinch Premiership has now become the tenth football league to agree a deal with Sorare, with the Bundesliga, LaLiga and MLS already on board.

The SPFL already has a trading card agreement with Topps and this new venture will add further revenue for clubs.

SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster, said: "The SPFL is always looking for innovative ways to offer our fans more enriching experiences and to broaden the appeal of our competitions to audiences from around the world.

"We’ve been looking at the digital market as a way to do that for some time and it quickly became clear that Sorare is a leader in this emerging category."

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