Sorare is no longer an Ethereum-only platform — users can now pay with fiat

Fantasy sports company Sorare has a multibillion-dollar valuation after two separate fundraises in 2021

July 31, 2023 11:12 am

Marko Aliaksandr/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

Sorare, a platform that infuses crypto and fantasy sports, is now offering an option for players to make purchases in the app with fiat currencies.

This new functionality follows a partnership with Mangopay, a payments infrastructure provider. With Cash Wallet, Sorare’s 3 million users will be able to pay not just in Ethereum but in the US dollar, the euro and the British pound, GamesBeat reported on Monday.

The French startup’s lineup of games has caught on the most in Europe — mainly for its NFT-based fantasy soccer game. But last year, Sorare partnered with Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) in a bid to expand into the US.

Sorare CEO Nicolas Julia stressed that the platform remains a blockchain-based product, but touted fiat integration as enhancing accessibility.

“Sorare is built using blockchain technology because we believe it can deliver unique benefits to sports fans and fantasy gamers in the form of proven authenticity, scarcity, and portability,” Julia said. “The launch of Cash Wallet is key to our goal of making Sorare as simple and user-friendly as possible for all sports fans.”

Sorare was founded in 2018. It started out as a trading and fantasy sports game, where users would buy digital cards of soccer players in the form of NFTs.

That vision attracted plenty of venture capital in 2021. Sorare raised $50 million in its Series A in February. Seven months later, it got a considerably larger investment — $680 million — with Softbank at the helm. With that latest round, Sorare achieved a $4.3 billion valuation.

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