¿Qué es Sorare?

Welcome to the English Sorare blog

To be honest, the true reason for this blog is to tell my wife that I’m at work when she nags me about spending too much time looking at football players’ photos on my computer …

You like football and you fancy yourself a manager (like 95% of all footy fans)? Sorare will suck you into a black hole. You have been warned!

To find out more, I have prepared a Sorare tutorial with the basics, so you can get to grips with the mechanics of the game.

Don’t go on about it… I want to play Sorare!

If you’re one of those people who shoots before they think, don’t waste any more time, sign up here for free (and you’ll receive a gift).

Play Sorare now

By signing-up through this link, you will receive a free Limited card when you buy 5.

You’ll be able to browse and fiddle on the platform. And don’t worry, if you get lost like a fart in a jacuzzi, you can come back here and continue reading…

What is Sorare?

Other than a weird word to pronounce, Sorare is a Football Fantasy game (the ones where your players score points following their performance during real matches) with a couple of twists.

Players’ cards are virtual

Well yeah, it’s the 21st Century where certain physical products are no longer in use or viable. We’re in the digital era, so we need to make the most of it.

The system uses Ethereum’s red blockchain. TheEther (ETH) cryptocurrency is used to buy and sell players. Actually, ETH is the currency we will use for everything.

Cards are collected, bought, sold and played on a platform (whose prizes are in cryptocurrency and/or new cards).

If you’re the kind of person who jealously guards Panini stickers in a box, to take them out once in a while and look at them in extasy while taking in the smell of their cardboard, this game might not be for you (or maybe yes).

Cromo antiguo y digital

They’re rare

This is a key feature of Sorare Fantasy Football. The value of any collectible, virtual or physical, is based in part on its scarcity. The scarcer it is, the more it’s worth.

Each season, Sorare will issue a limited number of cards for each player: 1 Unique (brown), 10 Super Rare (blue) 100 Rare (red) and 1000 Limited (yellow): a maximum of 1111 cards (depending on the player and demand, there could be less).

Types of scarcity

Unique cards of star players are the most coveted. For example, Kylian Mbappé’s card sold for a whopping 116,15 ETH (more than €53.000 at the exchange rate at the time). Bleedin’ heck!

Paperwork is up to scratch

Image rights in the world of football are worth a pretty penny. Just ask broadcasters. Sorare also had to break its piggy bank…

Every club in the game (155 at time of writing) have signed a contract allowing us to use their image on the platform.

Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Valencia, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Liverpool, Anderlecht, Benfica, Inter Milan, River Plate, Ajax, Oporto, all the Dutch, Belgian, Korean and Japanese leagues, and many others.

Equipos que participan en Sorare

We add new teams every week, so it’s just a matter of time before all the major clubs around the world are included.

You can win cash

The game called Fantasy Football SO5 is totally free. To begin with, you will receive a 400M budget to build a team of 10 players with common cards (these can’t be sold and will eventually expire). If you register through this website, you will receive an extra 100M. It seems that the cards are now given randomly according to your preferred teams.

If you turn out to be a Zidane in the making and your team scores well, you will be able to choose rare card prizes (based on your ranking). These you will be able to sell or use in your teams.

There are a new card auction market and a signings market (between users).  If you show talent in buying and selling, you could make some nice cash. Use it to invest further in your teams or spend it on a new laptop, because the one you’ve been using for a while now is a bit laggy.

Saúl del Atlético de Madrid

Ready to sign-up or shall keep on explaining?

No, I will carry on reading. I don’t have anything better to do anyway…

How does Sorare work? Is it safe?

Although you probably already have a fair idea of how Sorare works, there still is that one question we all ask ourselves when a game involves money: Is it safe? Is this a scam?

To begin with, you can take a deep breath and relax. This is a legal endeavour backed by reputable organisations like Ubisofte.venturesConsensisPartech and FC Barcelona star player Gerard Piqué.

The cards are yours

When you buy a player, you are actually acquiring a NFT (non-fungible token). I’m not going to go on and on about the technical aspects, suffice to say that the token is associated with a unique address (yours) and will remain so for ever, even if Sorare were to no longer exist.

Therefore, as well as using it for Football Fantasy, it will be a collector’s item or you will be able to use it in other games that function on these tokens (and there will be).

The money is also yours

You are always in control of the balance in your wallet. Sorare does not have access to your wallet, recharges will always be made straight into it. Even if the company were to burn down, you will always have access to your remaining ETH.

Sorare es seguro

The SO5 Fantasy Football game

Here is the crux of the project, the reason why you’ll be chipping away at your beauty sleep and become an expert in Belgian or Korean footy (you’ll see what I mean when you start playing).

Player cards

As mentioned, we have on the one hand Common cards and on the other Limited, Rare, Very Rare and Unique cards. In the game, all act in the same way, summing the player’s scores.

The difference being that, depending on the type of card (scarcity), you will get extra bonus. You will also need to possess a certain amount of each type of card to participate in the various tournaments. We’ll have a look at this later on.

Each card has the following information:

Ficha de Alphonso Davier
  • Player name
  • Position
  • Age
  • Nationality
  • Season
  • Team
  • Number
  • Type of card
  • Scarcity

How do I get them?

When you sign into the game, you will be awarded with a set of 10 common cards.

Common cards don’t have a monetary value. This means you cannot buy or sell them in ETH.

New signings
Here’s what the market for new cards looks like

Other cards (Limited, RareVery Rare and Unique) are obtained in four ways:

  • At a new card auction (buying)
  • In the signings market (buying)
  • Private offer made to other users (buying)
  • Free as a prize for your team’s good ranking

Taking a look at the signings market, you will spot cards from previous seasons. These can be used as long as the player remains active in a league covered by Sorare.

What are they worth?

The price you are willing to pay. It’s that simple. At auction, the starting figure for Rare cards is 0,005 ETH (about €5 at the exchange rate in January 2021), 0,048 ETH (about €56) for Very Rare cards and 0,478 ETH (about €560) for Unique cards. Prices can vary over time.

In the signings market, the user will fix the sale price. Be wary of players that are suspiciously cheap (they are generally injured or warming up the bench).

Creating your account will automatically create your wallet, where you will keep the balance of the Ether (ETH) you have recharged or won. You can recharge your wallet from another ETH wallet, an exchange or your credit card.

Sorare wallet

Base currency is ETH, but you will always see its equivalent in the fiat currency of your choice: euro, dollar, etc. Cryptocurrency prices fluctuate considerably, it is normal, therefore, to see the fiat currency value vary considerably as time goes by.

How do players score points?

As in most Football Fantasy games, players’ points are based on the sum of their stats during corresponding matches. The data comes from Opta, provider of statistical data for most major leagues.

Hence, the premise is: if they don’t play, they don’t add. It’s ss simple as it is sad… especially for those of us who have a knack for choosing players just when the coach decides to bench them…

Player performance

The mechanism to award points is complex, but can be divided as follows:

  • Decisive points
  • Global points
  • Bonus

Decisive points

The player starts with 35 points, these will increase through their positive impacts or decrease through negative impacts.

  • Positive impacts: goal, assists, forced a penalty, save on goal line, clean sheet (only for goalkeepers), saved penalty and last man tackle (averting a clear goal scoring opportunity)
  • Negative impacts: red card, own goal, penalty given away, missed clear goal scoring opportunity, concede 3 or more goals (only goalkeepers)

Global points

A list of 39 plays that add up less than- or are lesser actions than- the decisive ones.

Bonus

Are cumulable.

  • 5% if the card is the current season’s
  • 20% for designated captain
  • Level bonus (maximum 50%): depends on the card’s level (experience and scarcity)
Ficha común Dybala

Where do I go to sign-up for the game?

Choose your team

Now you need to decide which players will form your squad to participate in the chosen tournament. You will need: a goalkeeper, a defender, a midfielder, a forward and an extra player (In any position other than goalkeeper). You will designate one of them as team captain.

Equipo inicial rookie

The platform is quite intuitive. It will show you the players you can choose in each position, and whether they have a match on that day. In the beginning, you won’t have much trouble shaping your squad, you won’t have too much to pick.

Fixtures

Match days are numbered by week, although these are really composed of 4 days: from Tuesday to Friday. Therefore, week #1 goes from Friday (6pm) to Tuesday (5am); Week #2 from Tuesday (6pm) to Friday (5am), and so forth.

Fixtures

This is a clever idea, because there is always some form of competition during the week, which means you will always need to be calculating who will be selected in each. Be warned, guessing squads for cup fixtures is a nightmare.

Leagues

Another skill for this game is dividing the championship into different leagues, to balance out strengths and ensure that those who have the most expensive cards don’t always win.

For example, we have the Rookie League, the All-Star League, the Under 23 League and regional leagues (European, American and Asian). Each is composed of 4 divisions and require a minimum of Rare, Very Rare or Unique cards, depending on their level.

Global league
A screenshot of how you will see the Global League

Plus, there are also a weekly league (every week with slightly different rules) and a training league allowing benched players to gain experience points.

Prizes

A game incentive are the prizes you can win if your team does well. As matches end, points are automatically updated, that way you can follow your team’s rise or fall in real time.

The prize list is quite long and varies from league to league. I’ll show you, below, the prizes for the Rookie League, which is the first you’ll compete in (unless your credit card is burning a hole in your wallet and you want to jump right into the higher levels).

Rookie League (max. 2 Rare + Common)Prize
1st ranked1 Limited level 1
2nd ranked1 Limited level 2
3rd ranked1 Limited level 2
4th to 10% ranking1 Common star
10% to 50% ranking1 Common level 1
50% to 100% ranking1 Common level 2

As you start playing Sorare you will get a Common level 2 card. Just playing averagely well – by which I mean that all your players are selected -, it is almost certain that you will end up in the 50% ranked teams and, therefore, win a Common level 1 card with which to play the following week.

If you want to move up in the leagues, because you have won or bought new cards, these are the prizes in a higher league.

Global All Star (min. 4 Rare, max. 1 Common -with 50% penalty-)Prize
1st ranked1 Rare star + 0,50 ETH (about 525€)
2nd ranked1 Rare star + 0,30 ETH (about 315€)
3rd ranked1 Rare star + 0,20 ETH (about 210€)
4th to 13th ranked1 Rare level 1
14th to 34th ranked1 Rare level 2
35th to 130th ranked1 Rare level 3
If you gained more than 250 points0,02 ETH (about 25€)
If you gained more than 205 points0,01 ETH (about 50€)

The cards that are given as part of prizes have different levels, depending on the importance of the player: from highest to lowest, Star, level 1, level 2 and level 3. Naturally, prizes cannot be cumulated.

A few tricks to kick-off on the right foot

Pass to Ronaldo, he always scores … hahaha… The Lusitanian player’s cheapest cards are worth around 1 ETH (about €1,150). So, let’s check out plan B.

Cristiano Ronaldo cards

Given the rules of the game (only 5 players can be selected), goalkeepers have a lot of value. In real football we’re looking at a ratio of 10 to 1, here it’s 4 to 1. Moreover, there is much less player rotation in goal. Consequently, their signings tend to be more expensive than other players’.

Starting out, it is worth investing heavily in a Common card goalkeeper (making sure they are generally in the starting squad, of course). If they are under-23, it’s even better. Because a long time will go by before you can buy a Rare card goalie.

After signing a good goalkeeper, you won’t have much money left for other players. With your assigned 400M budget, a good goalie will set you back 200-250M. You will only be able to sign other players for a value of around 15M each to complete your squad. Signing-up for the game from this webpage you’ll receive a handy gift of an extra 100M.

It seems that the cards are now given randomly according to your preferred teams.

The Belgian and Korean leagues are good providers of cheap players. Try and make sure they generally make the starting squad, or at least come on at half-time.

Before signing a player, make sure they have a match the current week. As there are 2 fixtures during a week (Tuesday to Friday and Friday to Tuesday). You could have the unpleasant surprise that your chosen players aren’t selected and you won’t be able to complete your starting 5. Being left on the side-lines at your first match is always frustrating.

Before the end of the day, make sure that none of your players have been dropped from their squads. I was once without a starting player, because I didn’t realise that the one I chose tested positive for Coronavirus a couple of days before the fixture. If your players don’t play you pass on many prize winning opportunities.

Let’s go!

Congratulations if you made it this far. You not only have a lot of time on your hands, but you are also a prime candidate to get addicted to this game. You now have the knowledge to unashamedly start playing Sorare…

Let's play Sorare

If you want to stay informed, follow me on social media, where from now and again I’ll post something. You can always send me an e-mail with your suggestions and/or progress… or flops…