Soccer star Lionel Messi has joined NFT trading platform Sorare as an investor and brand ambassador.
Sorare
Soccer star Lionel Messi is joining Sorare, the French nonfungible token trading game, as an investor and brand ambassador.
The Argentinian, who plays as a forward for French club Paris Saint-Germain, will help Sorare set latest standards in how fans connect with clubs and players, the corporate said in an announcement Wednesday. They’ll also work together to create latest content and fan experiences, Sorare added.
Messi has taken an equity stake in Sorare as a part of the deal, the corporate said, without expanding on the scale of his holding or other terms. Nicolas Julia, Sorare’s CEO and co-founder, said the partnership with Messi marked a “huge milestone” for the corporate.
“We imagine Messi will help us set latest standards in how we do that, and we stay up for sharing what latest content and fan experiences we have been collaborating on soon,” he told CNBC via email.
Sorare lets users trade digital player cards and manage teams of 5 in fantasy soccer tournaments. The cards are themselves nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, virtual collectible items that keep a record of ownership that’s tracked on the blockchain. Sorare says this creates “digital scarcity” for every card.
The Paris-based startup, which was last valued at $4.3 billion, has greater than 2 million users in over 185 countries and is partnered with over 300 sports teams and leagues including Spain’s La Liga and Germany’s Bundesliga. It has expanded beyond its core give attention to soccer recently into other sports, including basketball and baseball.
“Fans have all the time looked for methods to precise their passion and catch up with to the players and teams that they love and Sorare’s combination of a fantasy game with digital collectibles gives fans latest ways to try this, wherever they’re on this planet,” said Messi in an announcement Wednesday.
The partnership with Sorare adds to a slew of notable deals between sports stars and crypto platforms. French soccer player Kylian Mbappe and American tennis legend Serena Williams have previously announced tie-ups with Sorare. American football quarterback Tom Brady took a stake within the crypto exchange FTX, which on Tuesday agreed a sale to rival firm Binance after experiencing a liquidity crunch.
Messi himself previously agreed to participate of his salary in $PSG fan tokens, a cryptocurrency developed by blockchain sports platform Socios for Paris Saint-Germain, as a part of his two-year contract with the club. The tokens have since plummeted in value, dropping 86% since their August 2021 peak when Messi announced the Socios partnership, raising fears for average sports fans vulnerable to very large losses.
“There was a number of hype around different football projects using non-fungible technology so far, however the ones that stick around shall be those that supply real underlying utility and see non-fungible technology because the means to achieving their goals, not the ends,” Julia told CNBC.
He also connected with Socios on a separate three-year partnership in March to develop into a world brand ambassador for the corporate. Julia told CNBC the take care of Sorare was an “exclusive agreement.” Nonetheless, a Socios spokesperson said Messi’s take care of the firm “still stands and is just not affected by another potential agreement Messi may sign with crypto exchanges.”
