Digital collectibles and digital cards have really taken off in recent times. There are some digital collectibles selling for equal prices than the physical collectibles we’re all used to – some digital collectibles are selling for even more.
One popular soccer-related game that’s part collectible, part fantasy sports is Sorare.
In this article, we’ll look over Sorare and see if it is worth your time.
Table of Contents
What is Sorare?
So rare is part fantasy football, part digital collectible. Players can purchase, trade, and play with officially licensed digital cards and earn real prizes every week.
The cards you used are NFTs and backed up on the blockchain. This makes the cards more of a collector-item compared to other fantasy sports – you also own the card going forward once you purchase it – meaning you can collect or sell your card later on to other users.
There are a few main playing methods that Sorare players use.
- Try to create the best team from players around the world in order to win prizes (Fantasy Football based)
- Collect the cards of your favorite players and complete team sets (Collectable based)
- A mix of the two
What is a Sorare Card?
A Sorare card is a digital collectible that you will own forever, and you’ll be able to use it in competitions. Each player in the world has his own card and the better a player performs in real life, the more the card will be worth.
You can buy cards using Ethereum, as all cards are based on this cryptocurrency. Once you buy the card, it will be yours forever, unless you decide to sell it. The card you have is unique to you and it cannot be taken away from you.
Sorare cards are rated based on their scarcity, just like real-life collectibles. The rarer the card is, the more it will be worth. There are three main levels of rarity of Sorare cards:
- Rare (100 copies)
- Super Rare (10 copies)
- Unique (1 copy)
You’ll be able to tell how rare a card is by looking at its color. For instance, a unique card will have this brown background, while the rare will have a red background. These cards are essentially digital collectibles that you’ll be able to grow and develop over time.
Each card will have its own worth, based on the real-life performance of the players. Sorare collects data from Opta, so you can be sure that it’s all transparent. The better a player performs, the more it will be worth. Each card also has XP, which you can increase by playing players in games or by training them.
You should also know that there are common cards which you’ll get mostly as you get started. These cards have a white background but won’t have much value if you want to sell them. They’re just meant to get you started with playing games in competitions you like.
The higher XP a card has, the higher the last 5 average scores it has; and the rarer it is, the more powerful it will be in games, and the more it will be worth.
Once you sign up with Sorare, you’ll start off with a free pack. You’ll get a bunch of free packs for completing some initial challenges.
How Do You Get Sorare Cards?
You can get Sorare cards by buying them from the transfer market or by bidding for them and buy them from other managers.
Each manager can sell the cards he owns and put them on the transfer market, which looks like this:
Each manager is able to set the prices to whatever they think the price is worth. Beneath the card, you’ll see the price of the card, its score (we’ll get to that in a minute), and its percentage of XP bonus.
There’s also a possibility to negotiate the prices of some cards or trade as some players are available through Discord, but that’s not true for all players.
You can also get cards by winning tournaments or simply placing high enough to receive a Super Rare card.
For example, some tournaments will reward the first 250 players or so with a super rare card, while the first few will also receive monetary awards.
You can also sell players on the market. If you decide to sell a card, it’s important to choose the value based on the current values of the card on the market.
How Much are Sorare Cards Worth?
The price of a card will depend on a few key factors:
- The scarcity of the card
- The card’s XP and last 5 average score – this score is calculated by the player’s last 5 played games, and the higher the score, the better they have done in games
- XP bonus – the higher the XP bonus, the more XP the card will collect, and the higher the ceiling for its value will be
- The seller’s estimation of the card’s price – each seller is able to set the price to whatever he believes the price will be
Here you can see an example of a Robert Lewandowski card. It is expensive, but it has some impressive stats and it’s a very rare card of an elite player.
First of all, it is unique, meaning that there’s only one card of this type. Secondly, it has a 50% XP boost, which means it has a higher potential to grow (the more XP a card has, the better it is). Lastly, it has a high last 5 average score (79), meaning that it’s likely to do well in games you play the card, giving you a higher chance of winning more money in competitions.
Do You Own All Cards You Buy?
Yes, all cards you buy on Sorare are yours and yours alone, which is the beauty of this platform.
This makes it different from most other platforms like Football Index, for instance. When you buy a card, you can think of it as a digital asset that you own.
And with owning such a card, there comes a degree of attachment to the card, but you can always sell a card if you feel like it as well.
In this regard, Sorare brings the card collecting world on an online platform, with some additional features like tournaments where you can field your cards and use them in games to win rewards.
Can You Make Money on Sorare?
Yes, it is possible to make money on Sorare if you make the right moves and you know what you’re doing.
You can make money on Sorare in a few different ways:
- By winning tournament prizes – this is the ultimate goal, but it will be tough because you’ll be up against thousands of other players with the same goal
- By buying and selling players – you can build up a player’s XP and wait for the player to perform well in real life, which would be a good time to sell a card for a profit
- By buying young players with an eye for the future – the beauty of Sorare is that if you buy a card from a previous season, it will still count for the next season. So you can invest into a card of a young player and reap the rewards in the future.
You should know that earning money on Sorare is possible, but you should be prepared to invest some money first and you should know that there’s a level of risk that you’ll have to take in order to earn money.
With some sensible investments, you’ll be able to build a nice squad for the future that will be able to win tournaments, which will bring in some more money. Yes, it won’t be easy, but patience, hard work, and good research will be rewarded.
How Do Tournaments Work on Sorare?
Sorare has different tournaments where you can participate by using your cards. So far, all tournaments adhere to the Sorare5 rule, which means you’ll have to create a 5-a-side team from the cards you own.
There are a few variations as to the tactics you can use; for, instance, you can opt for 1-2-2-1, or 1-1-2-2, or even 1-2-1-2, but this will depend on your preferences and the cards you own.
You should aim to pick players that play real-life games for these tournaments because they’re likely to score higher than players that don’t have a game.
Your squad will receive points based on the real-life performance of the players. The better your players you’ve picked do in their matches, the more points you’ll get, and the higher the likelihood will be of you placing higher in a tournament.
Now, all tournaments have different requirements to join. The most popular tournament is the European Champions, where you’ll have to create a team with players from Europe’s five biggest top leagues: England, Spain, France, Italy, and Germany.
There are also other competitions that you can participate in. Some of the more popular include:
- Champion Asia – players from Korean and Japanese top leagues
- Global All-Star – players from most top leagues in the world (and only one common card is allowed)
- Global Under 23 – similar to Global All-Star, only that all players participating must be under 23
- Global Unique – compete against a team of unique only teams
You should know that it’s worth competing in as many competitions as you possibly can because you’ll have a higher chance of winning something this way. Even if you don’t place in the top 10, for example, you could still win a Rare or a Super Rare card even for placing in the top 100, for instance.
There’s also another type of “competition” that I should mention here. Well, it’s not really a competition, but it’s Special Training.
In Special Training, you’ll be able to train players that didn’t participate in a tournament. This could be players that didn’t play a game in real life, for example, so you decided not to use them. Special Training can boost their XP.
Is Sorare like Football Index?
While some principles of Sorare are similar to Football Index, you should know that it’s much different from Football Index in many ways.
There are a few ways that Sorare is different from Football Index.
First of all, it’s not a gambling platform. Football Index was regulated by gambling authorities and it was seen as a gambling platform, while Sorare currently is not regulated by such authorities.
As the developers of the game and its creators explain, Sorare is a platform that allows players to participate in games for free, which is partially true. You can participate in games, but your likelihood of winning games with a free squad is slightly lower, although it is possible to do so.
Secondly, you own the cards that you buy on Sorare, which is completely different from Football Index.
On Football Index, you were investing into a player’s future, so it was really a long-term investment. But Sorare is different in the sense that you own the card forever once you buy it, which means that it has a certain amount of emotional value to it as you get used to it and attached to it.
Lastly, Sorare is fully transparent when it comes to scarcity.
Some cards will be rarer than others, and this is backed by a secure blockchain environment that ensures that what you’re buying is truly rare. For instance, there are only 10 Super Rare Kai Havertz cards on the market. And since there are thousands of users on the platform, this creates real scarcity and the better Havertz does, the more the card will be worth.
Now, if Germany was to go on and win a World Cup in the future and Havertz scores a winning goal, the value of the card would go up naturally, which would be fantastic if you owned the card.
Can you invest in Sorare?
You can invest in Sorare, but only if you do it sensibly.
And by sensibly I mean investing in players that you think are going to do well and buying them at sensible prices. It is possible, for instance, to buy a Super Rare card for $200 and the player has not played well in recent games.
If you have the willingness to wait a few weeks or months for the player to start playing well, you could be able to make a handy profit from a relatively small investment.
In this sense, investing in Sorare cards is a bit like investing in stocks – you sell when players do well and buy when they come cheap.
Many players, however, love the aspect of collecting and owning digital cards (NFTs) and join Sorare for that aspect alone.
Then there’s the possibility to win money through winning competitions. Now, admittedly, this will be a tough task, since you’re up against thousands of other players who might have a better and more valuable squad of players than you.
There’s obviously a bit of risk involved if you use Sorare purely for investing, but which investment isn’t?
Final Thoughts
The bottom line is that Sorare is made for people who like to own things and have their assets online without feeling as though they’re gambling their money away on cards that might never repay their investment.
If you’re wondering whether Sorare is for you, then you can give it a try and see how it goes.
