Sorare’s initiative seeks to bring the experience of physical stickers to the world ‘online’
The FC Barcelona player Gerard Piqué bets on the fantasy football business through his participation as an investor in the Sorare company, after closing a capital increase operation of three million euros contributed by the Catalan footballer and the Cassius Family fund of the Former Coca-Cola Vice President Emmanuel Seuge.
This was announced by both the French company and Gerard Piqué at a virtual press conference in which Europa Press participated.
Specifically, Piqué clarified in one of his speeches that his investment represents “less than 50%” of the total amount of the capital increase carried out with the US fund.
As a result of the agreement, the footballer will also join Sorare’s board as a special advisor, along with current members: Christian Miele, partner in the venture capital fund e.Ventures, and the co-founders, Nicolas Julia and Adrien Montfort.
Through his Kosmos company, Gerard Piqué is known for driving and reimagining new trends in the world of sport, as he has demonstrated with the renewal of the Davis Cup of tennis. For this reason, the Barcelona footballer has affirmed that he sees a “huge potential” in the segment of sports games in this digital economy where the attention of the audiences is “the only really important currency”.
“I am looking forward to helping Sorare expand his agreements with different soccer leagues, clubs and players around the world to build the best fantasy football experience there is,” he said.
For his part, Sorare CEO Nicolas Julia stressed that Piqué is a very active entrepreneur who “is redefining the sports and entertainment industry.” “His strategic advice and business acumen are invaluable to our company. I am very excited that he will join our team and help us boost the love of football online,” added the company official.
Now that it is not possible for fans to attend the field due to the pandemic, Nicolas Julia has stressed that it is “an opportunity” for clubs and leagues to get closer to their fans and reach audiences that would otherwise be difficult to do. “This fantasy football licensing segment is a new source of income for clubs,” he added.
SORARE, A “YOUNG” COMPANY ON THE RISE
Sorare was founded in 2018 and the game was launched in December 2019. In its first year it has successfully incorporated more than 100 clubs from 10 different countries to its digital player card platform. Some of the historic 2020 Champions League teams have launched their digital cards in the game this year, such as Bayern Munich, Porto, Paris Saint-Germain or Juventus Turin.
They have been joined by the recent “signing” of Real Madrid as another of the great clubs with an official license, which, together with Real Betis Balompié, Atlético de Madrid and Valencia CF are the representatives of the Spanish league on the ‘online’ platform .
Last November the company reached 1.2 million euros in sales, according to Nicolas Julia. In addition, he stated that annual sales would be around seven million euros at the beginning of the new year, specifying that, being a company with just one year of life, it does not have official data in this section.
A GAME WITH ‘BLOCKCHAIN’ TECHNOLOGY
Likewise, Sorare’s goal is to bring decades of experience of collecting and exchanging physical stickers to the online world. The company is creating “a whole universe of digital card games where people can express their affinity with a club or a player, build identities and relationships with them.”
Sorare cards work through a licensing system and are issued in limited editions thanks to ‘blockchain’ technology, which allows them to offer a “high level of trust and security” for clubs and fans.
Sorare’s current potential market is at the intersection between fantasy football and trading cards and physical merchandising, which is estimated at $ 5.4 billion (€ 4.41 billion) and $ 18.6 billion (€ 15.158 billion) worldwide, respectively. Having reached more than 50,000 users in 2020, Sorare hopes to triple those numbers next year.
© 2020 Europa Press.
