Sorare, the platform revolutionising fantasy football with blockchain and NFTs, is about to close a funding round in which it has raised more than $500 million, sources say.
Business Insider, a digital news outlet dedicated to finance and the business world, indicated that Sorare will soon announce the largest round of financing in its history, and of any other technology company in France. According to the reportThe financing round is being led by the Japanese giant SoftBank, with the participation of major international companies, funds and asset managers.
Nicolas Julia, CEO of Sorare, assured that the company is not conducting any investment round, although the sources cited by Business Insider indicate that the financing round is close to closing, and that it will be made official very soon.
Sorare is a sports collectibles platform in the format NFT which has been widely accepted and successful since its launch. The Parisian company developing the platform, which is owned by Spanish footballer Gerard Piqué, would be valued at $3.800 billion if the aforementioned round of financing secures the funds. According to the source, Sorare has raised a total of $532 million in this round.
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NFT Revolution
The characteristics and potential of NFTs, always accompanied by technology blockchain, are revolutionizing several industries, including collecting and sports. These two industries have been touched by the NFT revolution in a very particular way, sparking mass interest and moving millions of dollars every day.
Through NFTs, Sorare began to innovate in fantasy football. Now, sports and digital fans can buy, sell, trade and manage a completely virtual sports team, using digital player cards in NFT format. The particularity offered by this entirely virtual sports platform is that through non-fungible tokens, users can connect with their favorite players like never before.
Sorare's digital player cards show the real performance of each athlete, so the value of each card will directly depend on the performance of the players in real matches. Within this platform, users can also win official prizes every week. Trading the cards is also a way of creating value within this platform. Thanks to blockchain, player cards have a limited number of existence, making them true collector's items.
$2 million in weekly sales
According to data from nonfungibleSorare is moving over $2 million in weekly sales, with an average of 11 executed sales and 4.300 active wallets. The value of digital player cards varies, as mentioned, according to the performance of the footballers; so they can be traded from a few dollars to several thousand.
One of the most expensive Sorare NFT crypto collectibles sold so far is one of Cristiano Ronaldo from the 2020-2021 season, which sold for close to $300.000.
Other crypto collectibles such as Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappé and Atlético Madrid's Jan Oblak sold for nearly $60.000 and $10.000 respectively this year.
NFT fever is back
In addition to football, NFTs are breaking into several other sectors of society. Non-fungible tokens are making a name for themselves among artists, musicians, content creators and even companies that are beginning to bet on their potential and value. FOX and Warner Bros are two of the largest and most important companies in the entertainment world that are using NFTs to add value to their film productions.
Exclusive fashion house Dolce & Gabbana is also embracing NFTs to launch an exclusive haute couture collection in digital format. Music artists such as 3LAU have sold their tracks for real fortunes. Digital artist Beeple holds the record for the most expensive NFT sale in history, with his crypto art collection “Everydays: the First 5000 Days” selling for almost $70 million in March.
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