NFT, which became very popular in modern digital art, quickly took over sports, especially football. Why do digital cards of famous football players cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and why do football clubs and players actually need them? Today, we’ll try to find out!
Why Do Football Clubs Need NFTs?
Computer developers were the first ones to come up with the idea of monetizing football with NFT. In 2018, Frenchmen Nicolas Julia and Adrienne Montfort came up with Sorare, a game in which players become managers of a digital football team. Sorare runs on the Ethereum blockchain, where most token buying and selling transactions take place.
Users play with digital cards that represent famous football players. Some of these cards are collectible NFTs licensed by real football clubs. In this case, cards can be exchanged, bought, or sold.
Sorare’s goal is to enlist the support of 20 major football leagues from around the world. By the summer of 2021, Sorare had licensing agreements with over 140 football clubs. At the end of November, the company entered into a licensing agreement with the Russian Football Premier League.
In September, Sorare received $680 million from investors, and the company’s estimated value exceeded $4 billion. The company has competitors such as Football Coin and KS Football.
Sorare-like platforms are not only devoted to football. For example, the NBA has the NBA Top Shot blockchain platform.
Some clubs issue NFTs on their own. For example, in November, FC Barcelona announced releasing an NFT collection dedicated to key moments in the club’s 122-year history on the Israeli Ownix platform.
Why Are Football NFT Tokens So Popular?
In addition to licensing agreements with blockchain platforms, some clubs issue their own tokens. The target audience of such coins is fans who receive various privileges to purchase tokens.
For example, the Paris Saint-Germain club (PSG) has fan tokens called $PSG. By purchasing $PSG, club fans can influence the decisions made within the club. Of course, they will not have the final say, but, for example, they can choose the design of a team bus or choose a goal of the season. A fan can also receive a call from one of the team members.
By the way, when switching to PSG from FC Barcelona, footballer Lionel Messi received a part of the bonus with fan tokens.
At the time of this writing, one $PSG was worth more than $16, and at its peak in April, its price reached $56.
In addition to PSG, Milan, Manchester City, Barcelona, Juventus, and other football clubs also have their own tokens. Many of them are created in partnership with the blockchain platform Socios, founded by Frenchman Alexandre Dreyfus.
With the help of fan tokens, as in the case of NFT, a team not only increases the loyalty of their fans but also makes money. For example, Socios, according to the company itself, has earned about €200 million since 2019. Football clubs enjoy part of this amount. Initially, the platform pays the club a fixed amount for using the ‘brand’ and also shares the profits earned from the sale of tokens.
This method of earning was especially useful during the Coronavirus pandemic when teams could not play matches for a long time and were forced to play without fans at the stadium when the games resumed.
How to Make Money on Football NFTs?
You can earn money with fan tokens in the same way as with conventional cryptocurrency. The same $PSG is traded on the Binance crypto exchange, which means you can buy it and then sell it at a higher price in case you don’t need fan privileges.
Collectible NFTs can also be purchased to resell at a higher price. Still, there are other options as well. Thus, many traders advise paying attention to the platform which issues these NFTs. For example, Lionel Messi announced the release of non-fungible tokens on the Ethernity Chain platform in August.
After the announcement, the ERN token’s value increased in a few hours from $8.5 to almost $13. At the time of writing, ERN cost $11.
You can also make money on the Sorare platform, not only by trading cards but also by actually playing the game. So, for winning a match, you can get from 0.01 ETH. The amount of ETH varies depending on the difficulty of the match.
The more difficult the match is, the more rare (and therefore expensive) NFT cards you will need. Thus, Cristiano Ronaldo’s card was sold in the game for €84K. You can purchase in-game cards from one of the users or directly in the game.
The ‘power’ of playing cards is tied to the players’ professional careers in real life. That is, the card of a strong football player will always be more expensive than that of a beginner. From this follows another way to make money — to find a card of a promising football player and wait for its price to skyrocket.
The Top 5 List of Most Expensive Football NFTs
Once we have found out why football NFTs are so popular, it’s time to consider the top 5 most expensive Sorare NFTs ever sold. Let’s get started!
Diego Maradona
It is a card of the legendary footballer, where he was captured by the coach of the Argentine club, Gimnasia y Esgrima. After the death of Maradona in November 2020, the cost of the token skyrocketed. Now the price of the card on the OpenSea platform has grown to $9 million.
Lionel Messi
It is an NFT by renowned artist Bosslogic, who has collaborated with Marvel. Initially, the card cost $50K, but in the end, it was sold at a price 20 times higher. The token is now up for sale on the OpenSea platform for $37.3 million.
AC Milan Players Pack
A pack of five cards with AC Milan players (Rafael Leão, Brahim Díaz, Rade Krunić, Sandro Tonali, and Alexis Saelemaekers) were sold a little cheaper than Messi’s. But on OpenSea, the pack is much cheaper than PSG’s NFT player — five tokens can be bought for $2.3 million.
Martin Ødegaard
The NFT of the Arsenal player and the captain of the Norwegian national team was sold for almost $600K. Now the owner has put the card on OpenSea and is waiting for offers on the price.
David Beckham
One of the most famous football players of all time kicks off the list of most expensive sports NFTs with a price of almost $500 million. Here David Beckham is pictured playing for Paris Saint-Germain in his final season.
Conclusion
Today, we have considered the most expensive Sorare NFT cards ever sold. Football NFTs are typically used in digital games where they replace players on the field. But some clubs and players issue separate tokens that act as souvenirs — these can be significant events in the history of a club or a football player.
Which Sorare card do you like most? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!
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