September 10 – Spain’s LaLiga is launching non-fungible token fantasy football cards for all its players, entering a partnership with the French platform Sorare.
La Liga is the latest football stakeholder and first major European league to jump into the world of cryptocurrencies with the exclusive long-term deal.
“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,” said La Liga President Javier Tebas.
Sorare lets users trade digital player cards and manage teams of five in fantasy football tournaments and the platform is thriving, having a number of leading clubs, including Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain, under license.
La Liga clubs will receive a royalty on sales and Sorare has paid a minimum guarantee to ensure exclusivity, the company said.
NFTs are unique digital assets that are designed to certify ownership of a virtual item, such as rare art or trading cards, on the blockchain.
Oscar Mayo, Executive Director, LaLiga, said: “We have been looking at the best way to enter blockchain and who would be the best partners…We have also been looking at ways to connect with all of our fans all over the world and continue to expand awareness of LaLiga. This will make us be more global.”
Sorare trades with the tagline ‘Own your game’ and pointed out that while previously fans played a fantasy game and then would buy in to play again, with NFTs they actually own part of the game with the player cards.
PSG add crypto partner
With sales of NFTs booming this year, football has been keen on exploring new revenues opportunities. On Thursday, PSG entered into an agreement with crypto.com with the platform becoming the club’s first cryptocurrency partner.
The partnership will included the release of NFTs and Crypto.com will pay a significant portion of the sponsorship fee using the cryptocurrency token CRO.
“With this partnership Paris Saint-Germain demonstrates once more it’s vision and leadership as a pioneer in areas such as lifestyle, esports and digital,” said PSG’s chief partnerships officer Marc Armstrong.
PSG has already launched blockchain-based Fan Tokens via the Socios.com platform and Fan Tokens were included in Lionel Messi’s package when he joined the club this summer.
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