Liverpool FC Deepens Partnership with Sorare in NFT Business in Online Gaming

JAKARTA Liverpool FC management, Thursday 22 September announced that they will cooperate with sports blockchain startup Sorare, based in France. This partnership will deepen Reds' involvement in the currently growing NFT business.

Sorare, with his online fantasy game having been in the sale of licensed digital sports cards that gamers can use to build teams to compete with each other, says they have an exclusive multi-year partnership with Liverpool to create content and experience for supporters.

Cards for games can be purchased and traded in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFT), a kind of crypto asset that records ownership status of digital goods on the blockchain.

According to Sorare, the cooperation since 2021 is the sale of Liverpool cards on their platform. While the new deal will allow gamers to tour Liverpool's Anfield Stadium, watch matches, purchase club souvenirs and video content, which is offered as prizes for online game winners.

Sports-related collectibles proved to be a popular type of NFT when the digital asset market exploded into a multibillion-dollar industry last year, although the current craze for NFT has died down in recent months.

According to crypto market tracking agency Cryptoslam, the average selling price of Sorare's NFT in August was USD 86.14 (IDR 1.3 million), down from a high of around USD280 (IDR 4.2 million) in March last year.

Gambling watchdogs in the UK are also currently investigating Sorare to assess whether the game is a form of gambling. But a spokesman for Sorare said these allegations were "irrelevant" in their partnership with Liverpool.

"Sorare remains firmly convinced it does not offer any form of gambling, and this has been confirmed by expert legal opinion at every stage since the company was founded, including when signing new partnerships," the spokesperson said.

Sorare says it has more than 2 million users worldwide and has partnerships with more than 280 million sports organizations, including Major League Baseball in the United States and English football clubs.