KEY POINTS
- Sorare uses blockchain to issue limited digital trading cards of football players
- Piqué is investing $4.3 million in the company
- The company will work with the player to “onboard the top 20 football leagues in the world”
Barcelona FC star Gerard Piqué has announced he is joining the blockchain industry by investing in Sorare, an Ethereum-based football trading card game.
Piqué will join Sorare as a strategic advisor and is reportedly investing $4.3 million in the firm. He recently participated in a seed funding extension round led by Cassius Family, a U.S. investment fund. The company’s total funding reached $8.6 million after this, according to an article on Sifted.
The football star said he joined the funding because he has been a fan of football cards since he was a kid. “As an entrepreneur, I think the world of football has to innovate. At the end of the day, it’s the next step, the next generations will collect these kinds of assets and digital cards,” he said at a press conference.
In a blog post, the company will work with Piqué to onboard the top 20 football leagues in the world. “Gerard’s investment will help us expand our global presence to reach more football fans around the world.”
Cassius Family, led by Emmanuel Seugé, will help the company with branding. “As an ex Coca-Cola VP of Global Alliances, Seugé has set new standards for brand engagement through sports,” Sorare added.
Sorare uses the Ethereum blockchain to create limited runs of digital trading cards that players can use to assemble a fantasy team or even trade them in exchange for other cards or digital currency. As a digital item on the blockchain, it ensures that a digital card owned by one player is not fake or owned by another person. Furthermore, if the player decides to sell the digital card to another person, the blockchain will have records of the card’s original owner, as well as the amount it was sold for.
Piqué said he was looking forward to what the blockchain could do to innovate football. “I see a huge potential in the sports gaming segment in a digital economy where the attention of the audiences is the single most important unit of currency,” he said in a statement.
Sorare is not the only company looking at blockchain to release digital trading cards. BBC Studios earlier partnered with Reality Gaming Group to create a blockchain game about “Doctor Who.”