A £30 million ($34.6 million) a year contract is in the midst of being signed in a deal between the top tier of England’s professional soccer league, Premier League, and Sorare. Sorare is a fantasy soccer game that sells static player image NFTs that players can use as part of a fantasy sports team selection. It gives its users the chance to build and manage their dream teams and even sell their players.
The contract was previously leveraged to Consensys. However, due to the ongoing crypto winter and the dramatic fall in NFT prices, ConsenSys attempted to renegotiate its deal, resulting in the Premier League reopening discussions with Sorare. More than 20 clubs of the Premier League will allow their fans to purchase NFTs of their favorite athletes, such as Christiano Ronaldo, Harry Kane, and Erling Haaland, as well as others under the potential contract, providing the clubs with better financial conditions.
While ConsenSys has a wide range of Web3 interests, Sorare is focused entirely on fantasy sports. The French company raised $680 million in late January 2022 through a Series B funding round led by Japan’s Softbank. ConsenSys also raised a similar amount in late 2021 and early 2022.
Sorare started by signing up individual football clubs, and then, expanded to entire football leagues, such as La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, MLS, and, currently, Premier League. The French startup even went beyond football, following deals with the MLB and NBA and rumors of a PGA Tour collaboration.
Sorare’s ambitions also include cutting down on their carbon emissions by the end of the year, with the long-term goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2025.
The CEO and co-founder of Sorare, Nicolas Julia said:
“In July of 2021, we reduced our corporate carbon footprint by 99 percent by migrating the vast majority of our transactions within the Ethereum Blockchain to the more efficient Layer 2 network. Our long-term ambition is to align our decarbonization efforts to a long-term net-zero strategy.”