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French Football Federation launches official player NFTs with Sorare

Les Bleus players and their sports stats will be tokenized on the blockchain for trading and playing in fantasy games.

With the Euro 2020 championship in progress, blockchain-based fantasy soccer game Sorare has announced the licensing agreement for a national sports association to issue nonfungible tokens of its players.

In an announcement today, Sorare said the France Football Federation, or FFF, had launched its own line of player nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, prior to the team’s match against Germany on Tuesday. The French National Team — often called “The Blues” for the color of their shirts — is currently competing in the 2020 Union of European Football Associations European Football Championship. The Euro 2020 tournament was postponed last year due to the pandemic.

The firm will tokenize France national team players including Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba, and Hugo Lloris as digital cards for the 2020 season. With their performance stats recorded on the blockchain, player cards will each have different scores and rarity for the fantasy football game.

Winner of the European Football Championship in 1984 and 2000, France is reportedly one of the first national football associations to make a licensing agreement for official digital collectibles. However, Sorare said it was “in active discussion” to onboard other associations across the globe. 

Related: Blockchain-based fantasy soccer game Sorare signs on Paris Saint-Germain

Sorare said it had sold more than $70 million in digital cards since January and currently has 90,000 monthly active users from 140 countries. Residents of more than 200 countries play football — or soccer, as it’s called in the United States and a few other nations.

“We’ve onboarded the World Champions: the French team,” said Sorare CEO Nicolas. “It is the first of many football associations that will be joining us in the coming weeks and months."

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Best Goal Scorer at Euro Soccer Championship to Get NFT Trophy From Gazprom

Best Goal Scorer at Euro Soccer Championship to Get NFT Trophy From GazpromThe player with the best goal at Europe’s international soccer championship this summer will be awarded a special prize. European football’s governing body, UEFA, and the tournament’s sponsor, Russia’s Gazprom, are behind the initiative to present the winner with an NFT trophy. UEFA, Gazprom to Award Best Goal Prize at Euro 2020 The unique prize […]

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Ukraine’s Leading Soccer Team Dynamo Kyiv to Sell NFT Tickets

Ukraine’s Leading Soccer Team Dynamo Kyiv to Sell NFT TicketsFC Dynamo Kyiv, the top team in the Ukrainian Premier League, is launching NFT tickets for the 2021 season. The legendary football club, which has the biggest fan following in Ukraine, is also going to offer supporters unique collectible items through a partnership with a blockchain company. Dynamo Kyiv Tickets to Be Listed on Binance […]

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NFL quarterback Tom Brady hints at owning Bitcoin

The GOAT's Twitter profile picture now shows him with laser eyes.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, arguably one of the most talented American football players of all time, has hinted that he’s a Bitcoiner.

On Monday, Brady changed his Twitter profile picture to one with laser eyes, potentially implying to his 1.9 million followers that he is invested in Bitcoin (BTC). The football star made the change less than a day after Blockworks co-founder Jason Yanowitz challenged him to do so and provided the updated picture.

The crypto asset's price was seemingly unaffected by the NFL player's pseudo-announcement. At the time of publication, BTC's price is $57,500, having risen 8% in the last seven days. However, players in the crypto space including MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor and Anthony Pompliano both acknowledged Brady's presumed entry as a Bitcoiner.

The seven-time Super Bowl champion announced in April that he would be backing a new nonfungible token, or NFT, platform called Autograph. The marketplace aims to provide a tool for digital collectibles and will feature big names in sports and entertainment.

At the time of publication, Brady’s representatives have not provided any comments regarding his Bitcoin holdings.

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Football star Tom Brady to launch his own NFT platform

Autograph will target some of the world's biggest names in sports, entertainment, fashion and pop culture.

Six-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady is backing a new major development in the nonfungible token industry by launching his own NFT platform.

The new NFT platform, dubbed Autograph, will target some of the biggest figures in sports, entertainment, fashion and pop culture, and provide a tool for unique digital collectibles, a Brady representative told CNN on Tuesday. The platform is expected to launch this spring.

Autograph CEO Dillon Rosenblatt said that the platform will bring together “some of the world’s most iconic names and brands with best in class digital artists” in order to create and launch NFT pieces to a community of fans and collectors. Autograph will also have interactive offerings like live auctions and physical product drops, as well as in-person experiences.

According to CNN, Brady and entrepreneur Richard Rosenblatt will serve as co-chairs of Autograph. According to the company’s website, the board of advisors and chairs also includes Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, and DraftKings co-founders Jason Robins and Paul Liberman, as well as Dawn Ostroff, advertising business officer at Spotify. 

NFTs are unique pieces of digital content brought online using blockchain, the underlying technology of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). The new digital assets are seen by many as a way of guaranteeing digital scarcity.

There are a wide number of NFT platforms and marketplaces that allow creators and fans to sell and buy NFTs, including the Winklevoss brothers’ Nifty platform. As NFTs grow more and more popular — with a standalone piece recently selling for nearly $70 million — global crypto firms have been scrambling to make their own NFT platforms and divisions to meet increasing demand.

Some of the latest firms to move into the NFT space include India’s largest crypto exchange, WazirX; French crypto hardware wallet supplier Ledger; and cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com.

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NFT Platform Sorare Adds Turkish Soccer Club Galatasaray

Fan-favorite Galatasaray from Istanbul has been added to Sorare. The platform now has 126 licensed clubs.

Trade Galatasaray Players on Sorare

After teasing a new addition to the fantasy football trading card game, Sorare revealed that Galatasaray is the next club to join the platform. The Turkish club is known for its passionate supporters and is a constant title-contender in Turkey.

Galatasaray has also enjoyed European football glory to their name. They won the 1999-2000 UEFA Cup against Arsenal, the first time a Turkish club has ever won a European club football trophy.

Sorare is a fantasy football trading card game that has seen increased interest both from users and mainstream video gaming companies. Ubisoft has recently partnered with Sorare for a project linked to the Belgian football league, a major step for the platform. The gaming giant is rumored to be interested in closer ties with the firm, which has just completed a $50 million raise.

According to nonfungible.com, Sorare has reached more than $35 million in all-time volume and is attracting more users on a daily basis. The game is surprisingly easy to play and can earn savvy managers a lot of money. A unique Cristiano Ronaldo card sold for $290,000 as the demand for rare cards has been rising.

Turkey has become a hot spot for crypto activity, as its national currency is fast being devalued. As the price of the Lira dropped nearly 15% against the U.S. dollar, Google searches for Bitcoin exploded over the weekend.

NFT Platform Sorare Adds Turkish Soccer Club Galatasaray
Source: Google Trends

Disclaimer: The author held BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies at the time of writing.

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