Web3 fantasy sports platform Sorare has partnered with Major League Baseball (MLB) in its first expansion beyond football. Following a partnership with America’s Major League Soccer, the MLB deal represents a major milestone for Sorare in the U.S. and globally.
The non-fungible token (NFT) based game launched in 2019 and initially partnered with individual soccer teams across leagues to mint limited edition trading cards of the players. Users purchase these NFT cards and use them to build a five-player weekly line-up whose performance depends on how the athletes play in real life. Sorare managed to sign up almost every major soccer team in Europe, partner with leagues including La Liga and Bundesliga, and sign up national teams during the Euro 2020 tournament, such as France and Belgium.
Until recently, its focus was mostly in Europe since that is where football has a strong presence and financial backing. Last year, Sorare raised $680 million in funding, after which it opened offices in the U.S. and this March, finalized the deal with the MLS. The partnership with MLB further emphasizes its American expansion efforts.
For the MLB and baseball in general, partnering with Sorare gives it the opportunity to be exposed to 1.8 million Sorare users across 185 countries.
“The connections we build with our fans are vital and Sorare understands the importance of that bond,” said Commissioner of Baseball Robert D. Manfred, Jr. “The company’s focus on transforming fandom through an innovative combination of sports, technology and gaming to let fans truly own a piece of the game they love is unique and goes beyond borders – allowing us to bring the love of baseball to more fans across the globe.”
MLB has several initiatives in the NFT space, including dynamic NFTs with Fanatics’ Candy and digital collectibles with Topps, which is now also owned by Fanatics. Its first initiative was supported by WAX blockchain but was discontinued.
As for Sorare, it experienced 32% month-on-month monthly active user growth over the past 12 months and expects to further grow its audience in the U.S. through the MLB partnership, especially among young users.
Outside of fantasy sports, Sorare is reportedly getting involved with the PGA Tour, managed a Ronaldo NFT auction, partnered with Homa Games for mobile football games, and launched a legends NFT collection.14All suggestions
