Sorare’s MLB NFT bet: Game-play is the key

The game-play’s the thing

The crypto market is in a massive downturn, and NFTs aren’t immune to the meltdown, with even Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs selling for fractions of their previous prices.

Despite that, a new genre of NFTs is taking hold, which fuses together fantasy sports and collectibles. The challenge for this emerging market is how to make the games attractive for gamers, and not dependent on investor speculation. If it works, it could establish a sector of the NFT market that’s resistant to market swings.

Fantasy sports plus NFTs are a compelling combination. And the growth of NFT fantasy sports is important for blockchain tech more broadly, as an example of a use for crypto beyond just investment and speculation.

• Startup Sorare, which raised $680 million at a $4.3 billion valuation last year, has built a popular NFT-based fantasy soccer game that is being widely played internationally with 350 million monthly active users. Now it’s taking that model to the U.S. through a deal with MLB and the MLB Players Association to create an NFT-based fantasy baseball game.
• Sorare’s soccer game has users acquire “cards” of real-life players and receive points when the player does something, such as score a goal. Users can play in tournaments against other managers for prizes such as rarer cards or ether. There’s also a free version, which doesn’t require buying anything.
• The cards are NFTs, which consumers own. And the NFTs can be bought, sold or traded. That also means that if a certain player is performing very well, that NFT might rise in price on the marketplace.
• Sorare did $325 million in NFT card sales in 2021, compared to $8 million in 2020, said Ryan Spoon, COO at Sorare and a former BetMGM and ESPN executive. Sorare has a range of different types of games within its soccer game, such as games with only rookie cards, or geographic leagues or underdog games for lower-level players. There are also more advanced games for users with rarer cards.

Baseball is a natural first major U.S. sport for Sorare. It has stat-heavy games and a longstanding fantasy audience.

• Sorare’s already in the U.S. market with its MLS deal. Sorare’s MLB game will have overall similarities to its soccer game in terms of NFTs, but will have some features unique to baseball, such as pitcher match-ups.
• Sorare is hoping to expand to more sports after baseball, Spoon said. Meanwhile, the company hopes to cross-pollinate its games and users so that, for example, fans of baseball in the U.S. could become fans of soccer through Sorare.

WIth its push into more sports, Sorare is increasingly competing with Dapper Labs, which has popular NFT collectibles products for the NBA, NFL and UFC. One challenge Dapper has faced is ensuring its games are fun for fans and not just a place for speculators to flip NFTs. Developing compelling game-play is a challenge that’s arguably trickier than developing blockchain infrastructure. But the alternative is to throw yourself at the mercy of a merciless market.

— Tomio Geron (email | twitter)

A version of this story first appeared on Protocol.com. Read it here.

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