Sorare announced signing up with Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association to launch a new fantasy baseball game. After debuting its original football (soccer) game in 2019, it is the first new sport that Sorare is venturing into.
Like Sorare's famous soccer game, the new MLB game will offer digital cards of professional players as Ethereum NFTs. Users can create fantasy lineups using these cards to earn points based on the player's real-life performance in MLB games.
"MLB is, for many people—myself included—their first experience with fantasy sports," said Sorare COO Ryan Spoon. "It is a sport that is very rhythmic, math-driven, and stats-based, with tons of positions and players, scouting and prospects, and stars versus call-ups. It's going to be a blast."
Also, Spoon highlighted the long legacy of baseball trading cards, which Sorare aims to bring into the NFT space. In fact, sports collectibles have been a vital part of the NFT market boom. For instance, the NBA Top Shot and Tom Brady's Autograph platform are among the most notable efforts alongside Sorare.
Currently, Sorare's MLB card artwork is still ongoing. However, Spoon pointed out that it aims to maintain the approach of Sorare's current soccer NFTs - stats and edition numbers. Furthermore, every MLB player will have the same total number of NFT cards across varying rarity. But, the number is yet to be decided.
Besides, Sorare's MLB game is likely to be free-to-play, which means players won't need to buy NFTs to play. Moreover, unlike its soccer game, which has partnerships with over 250 teams, the baseball game will only focus on Major League Baseball.
Meanwhile, Major League Baseball has an existing NFT deal with Candy Digital, majority-owned by sports merchandise giant Fanatics. Also, before their latest Sorare deal, MLB had partnered with trading card stalwart Topps to release digital MLB trading cards.
Furthermore, they released the NFTs on the WAX blockchain to remain environmentally friendly. In fact, the NFTs replicate Topps baseball cards in real life. However, Topps was acquired by Fanatics earlier in 2022 and now comes under the same umbrella as Candy.
Sorare is an NFT-based fantasy sports platform built on the Ethereum blockchain with a startup valuation of 4.3 billion. Furthermore, it has built its NFT football platform into one of the most popular blockchain games in the market. Also, the firm makes partnerships with clubs and leagues, predominantly in football.
With its partnership with MLB, Sorare is expanding in the baseball industry. In brief, each of the trading cards on the platform is an NFT, and users can trade them on their marketplace. The goal is to make their fantasy teams and earn points based on real-life performances in the players' respective leagues.
Moreover, the pricing depends on the rarity and popularity of each player, with some reaching thousands of dollars. For instance, Lionel Messi's first card sold for $11,000. Interested in learning more about Sorare? Check out our Complete Sorare Guide.
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