Short
- Sorare, the Web3 startup behind NFT-based fantasy sports games, will launch an officially licensed fantasy NBA platform.
- The Sorare NBA game will co-exist with Dapper Labs’ famous NBA Top Shot, as well as the NBA’s own The Association project.
Sorare’s ethereum-based fantasy soccer platform helped fuel the rise of both NFT gaming and digital sports collectibles, and the firm recently expanded into baseball with an official MLB game. Now Sorare plans to enter the fray of NBA Top Shot with the upcoming launch of the official NBA fantasy basketball game.
Created in partnership with the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), the platform will let users collect and use Ethereum NFT cards based on the league’s pro players. Like Soccer’s Soccer and Baseball games, users can create a lineup from their proprietary NFT players and enter leagues that award ETH and NFT card rewards to the top performers.
Like those platforms, the NBA platform will also provide a free-to-play experience for users who do not wish to purchase NFTs. In the case of Sorare’s original soccer game, for example, new users are provided with a starter pack of free player cards that are not on-chain NFTs and cannot be resold.
Sorare plans to launch NBA games in time for the upcoming 2022-23 season, which begins on October 18. Few concrete details have emerged, but Michael Meltzer—Sorrare’s head of business development—told decrypt There will be some differences in terms of card rarity level and tournament scheduling, depending on the format and rhythm of the Pro Hoops League.
Of course, given the presence of NBA Top Shot, Dapper Labs’ officially licensed, video-based NFT collectibles platform, Sorare is entering a very different space with its NBA platform. Flow Blockchain, Even more so than Sorare, NBA Top Shot brought NFTs into the mainstream when it grew in popularity in early 2021, and continues until now. tops $1 billion In sale to date.
Sorare’s original soccer platform set the stage for official Pro Soccer NFTs, and while Major League Baseball had previous NFT projects—including digital card with tops And before an unfortunate game NFT market boom– The league did not give a giant like NBA Top Shot.
Meltzer suggested that Sorare’s approach as an interactive game—rather than a platform focused primarily on collectibles—would help Dapper establish his NBA platform in addition to Top Shot.
“We don’t see NFTs as a market – we see NFTs more as a technology,” he said. decrypt, “We think we have a very unique offering, and we have our own range that we have built through our [soccer] the product. We think our success so far will turn out well in the NBA, and is very different from anything else on the market.
NFT is a blockchain token that can represent ownership in an item, such as sports collectibles, digital artwork and video game items. In the case of Sorare, users purchase digital trading cards based on real-world players, which can be tapped for fictional battles against other users, as well as freely sold or traded in the game’s marketplace. Is.
Meanwhile, the NBA has taken a multi-pronged approach to Web3 especially recently. It was the first major American sports league to enter the NFT space with Top Shot – an opening bet that paid off big for a league known for being tech-savvy.
Since then, the league has launched its own NFT collectible on Ethereum. organization, and recently introduced Proof of Attendance tokens for the WNBA. NBA and WNBA also Partnered with Coinbase last season In a multi-year deal that included a . was part of Comprehensive 7,300% increase In the year-over-year crypto sponsorship spend in the league.
Matt Holt, Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships for the NBA decrypt He believes the league is in the “very early days” of its Web3 exploration. That said, the NBA’s goal is not to oversee its NFT efforts, but to find different avenues to engage its younger audience – more than half of whom are under 35.
“We want to be really thoughtful about who we partner with and the types of products we offer,” Holt said. “NBA Top Shot has been amazing, and will continue to be amazing. And our partnership with Sorare is a new, uniquely NFT-based fantasy effort in the space.”
So far, Sorare has generated $421 million worth of NFT sales in the secondary market, according to U.S. data. cryptoslam, The firm claims a total of over 2 million users, and said it saw 380,000 monthly active users in August.
Meanwhile, Sorare said that its mlb game It has attracted a total of 90,000 users since its launch in July, with NFT sales of $5 million as of September 1. sorare most recent Raised a $680 Million Series B Round In September 2021, that valued the firm at $4.3 billion.