Sorare takes on a project that has put together two popular ideas: NFTs and fantasy football. Played by millions and watched by billions, football is by far the biggest sport in the world. As a result, tens of millions play fantasy football – a game that uses real-life events to score points in a virtual game, a game where players pick their own players to make up a unique team.
Before diving into the points system and economy of Sorare, it’s worth pointing out that there are many leagues with different rules, as well as a variety of side games. Sorare academy, Sorare Mega, and Soraredata, to name a few. This means that the effort and team built up on Sorare feeds into a broader ecosystem, not just traditional fantasy football alone.
The rules of Sorare fantasy football
The rules of Sorare fantasy football are a little more in-depth than other fantasy football companies. After choosing your favorite club, you receive a pack of common cards – this will choose random players (some of which will be from your favorite club) to help create your team.
The points earned will be from the players’ real-life performances – a combination of an All-Round Score (AA), Decisive Score (DS), and an XP bonus that the card has. The decisive score is based on events that directly impact a game (i.e., points for starting the match), whilst the all-round score is based on the performance (i.e., shots on target).
The economics of Sorare
So, clearly, the point system is much more in-depth at Sorare than at many others, which makes for a more interesting team selection. But, clearly, you cannot just choose all of the best cards – there is an economy to Sorare that forces even more strategizing.
Using the blockchain, users can trade cards. These cards are essentially NFTs, digital assets with unique identifier tokens (meaning they cannot be duplicated or lost). This lays the foundation for setting levels of scarcity.
The open market will determine the price of the NFTs – it’s a libertarian’s dream. There are four types of scarcity for cards: limited, rare, super rare, and unique. With the unique cards, only one a minted per season, making them truly unique. The more scarce cards have higher values, and different leagues that you play in will have different limits on card levels (i.e., normal rare tournaments will require at least 4 rare cards and 1 common card). Using common cards in rare leagues leads to a 50% XP penalty.
Depositing and withdrawing
In keeping with their blockchain system, depositing and withdrawing money at Sorare requires ETH. Without ETH, a debit or credit card can be used initially. For those holding ETH on other exchanges like Coinbase, it’s possible to simply send ETH to the Sorare wallet address. Much of the fun of Sorare comes from buying and selling players. Like in any market, demand can rise and fall, meaning the sellers can trade astutely to help build up an in-demand, high-valued team. However, it’s possible to view the market at a fiat price as well as ETH.