How to Play Sorare – Earn Real Money Playing Fantasy Football With NFTs

Last Updated on February 1, 2023

Here’s some good news for all of you fantasy football fanatics out there. Thanks to blockchain technology and NFTs, there is now a way of making real money while assembling a squad of your favorite soccer players and competing against others online. Through leveraging the power of the Ethereum network, Sorare provides a platform where you can trade tokenized versions of players across most of the major leagues around the world, including the English Premier League, Bundesliga, LaLiga, Ligue 1, and the MLS,

In this guide, we will bring you a full breakdown of how Sorare works (including the scoring system) and some of the main methods you can use to earn money while building a virtual team of international football players.

What is Sorare?

Sorare is a popular play-to-earn NFT game that brings fantasy football into reality. Created in 2018 by Nicolas Julia and Adrien Montfort, the aim of Sorare is to buy, sell, trade, and manage a team of virtual players while competing against other people in global tournaments. Similar to traditional fantasy football games, you earn points based on the real-world performance of the players in your virtual team. The better they perform (through things such as scoring goals, getting assists, and keeping clean sheets), the more points your virtual team will earn.

However, Sorare offers a new twist on this much-beloved pastime by putting thousands of dollars up for grabs each month through tournament prizes. On top of this, there are plenty of other ways to make money if you think you have a keen eye for scouting talent and trading tokenized assets. 

What makes Sorare cards valuable?

While collecting trading cards, football sticker books, and managing a fantasy football team can be a lot of fun, the obvious downside is that the vast majority of these things aren’t worth anything in the real world. This is the exact problem that Sorare has set out to solve. 

All of the player cards found within the Sorare platform are identified as NFTs (non-fungible tokens). For those still new to the space, the main thing you need to understand about NFTs (when it comes to Sorare) is that each card is verifiably unique. 

This means that thanks to blockchain technology, you can actually own the cards that you acquire in the game. As a result, you are free to do as you please with each card, including putting them into your team or selling them to another person in exchange for money. As you might expect, the more sought after a player is in the game, typically due to how well they perform in real life, the more valuable they will be. 

Breaking down the rarity of Sorare cards

It’s important to note that not all cards in Sorare are made equal. Aside from the potential for a card to earn points in the game, the scarcity of the card is another significant factor in determining its value. For example, if you take a look at the Sorare marketplace, you may see two of the exact same players selling for widely different prices. This is because each player only has a certain number of cards minted (each season), which are further broken down into four color-coded subcategories. These are as follows:

• Yellow (Limited) – A maximum of 10,00 copies created per season.
• Red (Rare) – A maximum of 100 copies created per season.
• Blue (Super Rare) – A maximum of 10 copies created per season.
• Unique (Black/Brown) – One unique copy created per season.

During the onboarding process, which will be explained in the following section, you will receive a collection of common cards so you can build a team for free. However, these cards cannot be sold or transferred since they are not minted on the blockchain and are not NFTs. 

How to get started on Sorare

Now that you know what gives the cards their value, here’s a quick guide on how to get started collecting cards and building your own team.

Open an account

To get started playing Sorare, you need to open an account by going through the registration process. All you need to provide at this stage is an email address and your nickname. Confirm your email and log in to receive your free packs.

Receive your free cards

Once you have logged back in, you will be asked to complete a series of steps. These are choosing your team name and logo, uploading a user image, and choosing three of your favorite clouds from which free players will be randomly drawn and assigned to you. Next, it’s time to open your first pack.

As it turns out, NFTGators got a bit lucky and landed World Cup winner Toni Kroos in the starting pack.

Join your first league

Now it’s time to join your first league. The league is where you will compete against other players. Each league has its own set of criteria, which limits what kind of players you can have in your team. For example, the “Under 23” league only allows you to build a team of players under the age of 23.

The top-performing managers in each league will win a collection of prizes. Typically, this includes top-performing rare cards that can be sold on the marketplace or reinvested into your team. The higher you finish, the better the prizes.

As a new manager, you can only enter into the Casual League. Enter your team into the league, and then you will be gifted another free pack! (this time, the players will be random and not from your team of choice).

Building a team

It’s time for the fun part – building your team. Once you have opened the pack, you will be greeted with a blank football pitch and with five empty positions. These are:

• GK (Goalkeeper)
• DF (Defender)
• Mid (Midfielder)
• FW (Forward)
• Extra

Choose from your available players and try to select the team that you believe will score the most points. The game will display a few useful stats to help you decide, such as the average score the player received in the last five games. 

Next, you must select your captain. This is a vital aspect of the game and will often determine whether you stand a chance at topping the leaderboards or falling behind. This is because your captain will be awarded an additional 20% in points for the next game week. Here is the NFTGators starting team in all of its glory, with Toni Kroos getting the armband.

Once this stage is completed, it’s time for a new pack.

The scoring system (PS – Player Score)

Understanding the scoring system in Sorare is vital if you want to stand the best chance at picking out the players that are likely to provide a big points haul each week. Rather than us going into detail, here is a link to the official Sorare guide that will explain it in full.

To give a brief summary, each player will be given a score between 0 and 100. DNP stands for Did Not Play and will result in a zero score. Players are awarded points based on the direct impact they have on the game. If they score goals and assists, they will receive a high score. If they score an own goal or yellow card, they will receive a negative score.

Navigating the transfer marketplace

Buying and selling are key components of the Sorare platform. If you want to get a specific player in your team, then you will need to go out there and buy him (unless you were lucky enough to get him in a pack).

The marketplace has two main sections, New Card Auctions, and Manager Sales. 

New Card Auction is a great place to start as you can often pick up players for cheap since it is a bidding process. Here you will compete against other players in an auction format which will end when the timer runs out. On the other hand, Manager Sales is the place to go if you want to secure the best talent right away. Be warned; the prices can get extremely high for the best players in the game, so you may want to start off small and work your way up. For example, this Super Rare Kylian Mbappé is currently on the marketplace for a staggering €135,000!

Selling Sorare cards

You can sell your Sorare cards on the marketplace directly on the platform. Simply click on “My Club,” select “Cards,” and then hit the “Sell” button. You will then be taken to a screen where you will be prompted to enter your price. All sales will only last for 48 hours. If no buyer is found in that time, the auction will expire and the card will return to your collection. Successful sales will credit your Sorare wallet with Ethereum, which you can transfer to your personal wallet.

If you prefer, you can sell your cards externally on NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea, which currently has the Sorare NFT collection of over 320,000 cards.

How to deposit money into Sorare

If you decide you want to purchase a player, then you need to fund your account. Fortunately, this is a straightforward process. You can either fund your native Sorare wallet using a credit card or bank transfer, or you can connect your crypto wallet (such as Metamask) and perform transactions that way. The choice is yours.

Tournaments and weekly rewards

Now that you have a killer starting lineup, it’s time to enter into some tournaments so you can earn prizes. Before you enter into a tournament, it’s important that you look at your team to see which one you are best suited to. For example, the Champion Europe tournament is limited to players from the top five leagues in Europe. The Champion Asia tournament is limited to K-League and J-League players. 

However, if you want to enter with no restrictions, then go for the Global All-Star tournament. This is the flagship league in the game, and you can enter any players from your collection. 

In all the leagues, the top three places are awarded a cash prize paid in Ethereum along with a rare quality player. Together, this can easily be valued at $2,000+, potentially even more, depending on what player you receive. With that said, it is incredibly hard to top any of these leagues, so keep that in mind before you invest your entire net worth into your squad. Fortunately, the top 10% of participants receive rare players, which can be used in tournaments or sold for the equivalent value in Ethereum. 

In addition, there are extra cash prizes that are given out each week regardless of what league you participate in. These will be awarded to players who achieve a minimum of 205 points (for a prize of 0.01 ETH). Anything over 250 points will win a prize of 0.02 ETH. 

Wrapping up

Sorare brings a unique twist to the world of fantasy football by offering you the chance to own the cards you collect in the form of NFTs and sell them on the marketplace. With weekly cash prizes and a ton of leagues to participate in, there is certainly plenty to keep you entertained as you build your squad. Who knows, if you’ve got the skills, you may even wind up at the top of one of the leaderboards.

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