FILE PHOTO: Soccer Soccer – Premier League – Liverpool v Newcastle United – Anfield, Liverpool, Britain – August 31, 2022 A Liverpool flag is pictured before the match REUTERS/Phil Noble
LONDON, Sept 22 (Reuters) – Liverpool football club is deepening its ties with the crypto world by expanding its partnership with French blockchain-based sports startup Sorare, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
Sorare, which sells digital sports cards licensed to its online fantasy sports game that players can use to create teams that compete against each other, said it had an exclusive multi-year partnership with Liverpool to create content and experiences for fans.
Game tickets are bought and sold in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a type of crypto-asset that records the ownership status of digital goods on the blockchain. Read more
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A 2021 deal included Liverpool tickets on the platform and the new deal will see perks such as Liverpool stadium visits, matchday experiences, merchandise and video content offered as prizes for winners of the online game, Sorare said. Read also : Rogue Games takes over former Press Gazette distribution building.
The digital asset market, a type of NFT popular with sports-related collectors, exploded into a multibillion-dollar industry last year, though the frenzy has cooled in recent months. Read more
The average selling price of a Sorare NFT in August was $86.14, down from a peak of around $280 in March last year, according to market tracker CryptoSlam.
Britain’s gaming watchdog is investigating Sorare to assess whether its game is at risk. A spokesman for Sorare said this was “not relevant” to the partnership with Liverpool. Read more
“Sorare remains very confident that it does not offer any kind of gambling, and this has been confirmed by expert legal opinions at every stage since the company was founded, as well as when signing new partnerships,” said the spokesperson.
Sorare says it has more than 2 million users worldwide and partners with more than 280 million sports organizations, including Major League Baseball in the United States and soccer clubs in the United Kingdom. Read more
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Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft; Edited by Emelia Sithole-Mataris
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Reports on the intersection of finance and technology, including cryptocurrencies, NFTs, virtual worlds and the money that drives “Web3”.
