Sorare Guide: How to get started with Sorare

Sorare, meaning "so rare" is a robust web3 iteration of fantasy sports games popularised all around the world. Their tagline of Own Your Own Game is no joke: it’s the ability to buy and sell your player cards as virtual tokens that makes the platform special, and their big-name partnerships serve as definite eyebrow-raisers in the web3 space.

In fact, Sorare is one of the biggest entities in the crypto market as a whole, with it being the third-biggest NFT collection in the world according to CryptoSlam, with the figures showing a daily transaction volume of $1 million.

Recently announced official partnerships with Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA) and various elite-level football competitions like the Premier League and La Liga also offer an unmatched sense of prestige and legitimacy to the project. It’s no wonder that some of the biggest players in the world are actively involved with the game in their free time.

Antoine Griezmann, in particular, is well-known for his serious commitment to Sorare: he’s been playing the game since early 2021, and has amassed an incredible collection of players.

So how can you get in on the action?

Creating your account with Sorare

The account creation process for Sorare is quite straightforward: provide an e-mail address, select an eligible username and a safe password. You will receive a confirmation e-mail, and once you click on the link inside, you’re ready to go! The game’s onboarding process is smooth and will set you up with a set of starter cards in the competition of your choice in one of the many tournaments.

If you’re looking to get involved with the marketplace, you can make a deposit using Ramp, Moonpay, a dedicated crypto wallet or even your credit card – just be mindful of the fees.

Fantasy football rules – how to get started

At the core of the gameplay experience, all fantasy sports games feature a similar system. You get a set amount of points or some sort of virtual budget to spend on a selection of players across the league – so, to stick with the straightforward example, Premier League fantasy football players will get to draft from the squads from Arsenal to Wolves and everything in-between, with certain restrictions. (On Sorare, you can only have three players from one club in your squad at any given time.)

Obviously, as much as you would like to pick up all the best players, they are priced according to their skills and past performances, so you won’t be able to round out your roster with just the elite of the elite. Finding the right choices in the wide selection of midtable clubs – and figuring out which of the top players are worth selecting for the week! – is where you will find your edges. Your scouting knowledge, team fandom and understanding of fixtures and form all play a part in this.

The players in your team are scored after the match based on a wide variety of actions. This is different across all fantasy football games: in the case of Sorare, positive actions like goals, assists and last-man tackles will offer you points, but red cards, own goals and conceded penalties will lower them. You can find a detailed breakdown here.

The team behind the platform regularly reviews and adjusts these metrics, and with team scores and player XP also coming into play, there is a lot to pay attention to.

However, for the purposes of getting started, all you need to know is that your selected players will earn you a set amount of points based on how well they did in their real game, so you’re really trying to pick up the best-performing individuals on a hot streak, then trade your way to further success as the season continues to develop and you gather more data, all the while trying to deal with the effects of suspensions and injuries on your squad.

You will also be asked to select a captain for each week. This is a very important decision as the player in question will earn extra points. You don’t want to waste that virtual armband on a bench warmer!

Though we’ve used the football competition as the main example here, the gameplay experience is very similar in the case of the MLB and the NBA as well, with subtle differences enhancing the gameplay loop to suit each sport and their inherent attributes.

Sorare game modes and features: a variety of options

So what makes Sorare special, how does it differentiate itself from other fantasy football offerings? It’s the non-fungible nature of the tokens, of course; the cards come in set quantities and in different forms, with a tangible impact on the gameplay in turn.

Common cards are not NFTs and they cannot be traded with other players. These are the beginner tools made available for free-to-play players, similar to the Ageless pieces in Immortal. For everything else, there is a set number of cards minted in total. The rarity of the cards also affects their experience points. The higher the XP level, the better score multiplier that applies to the player in question. A word of warning: when you trade or sell a card on the secondary market, its accumulated XP will be halved!

Limited cards come in yellow, with up to 1,000 editions made available across a season. They start at level 0 (0% XP bonus) and cap out at level 20 (10% XP bonus).

Rare cards are coloured in red, and there are only 100 of them issued at most per player for any given season. They also start at level 0 (0% XP bonus) and cap out at level 20 (10% XP bonus). With 223,000 accounts owning a card of Rare or rarer rarity, only 0.0004% of the existing owners can have the chance to own a particular rare like Mbappe, or Haaland across the 100 copies. This means that while Limiteds are still fairly accessible, these cards live up to their typing.

Super Rare cards are blue, with just 10 of them issued per player per season. Owning a Super Rare card also allows you to enter the Super Rare tournaments, where the stakes get significantly higher. They start at level 40 (20% XP bonus) with a maximum level of 60 (30% XP bonus).

Finally, Unique cards, in a bold black-and-gold colour, are one-of-a-kind for each season. They already begin their lives at level 80 with a cap at 100, which corresponds to a whopping 40-50% XP bonus.

You can read more about the XP and scoring systems here. There are other typings to keep in mind – Rookies, Legends, and other interesting card variants which add an interesting element of collectibility within Sorare.

There are regular new card auctions and a healthy secondary market to make trades. You can follow specific players to get alerted for when their cards become available, but if you perform well, you can also possibly win them via the tournaments you participate in.

Fantasy football tips and strategies

If you’re new to the world of fantasy football, you’ll be surprised by just how involved and technical the gameplay experience can be. There are many little levers you can pull (heyo, Barcelona fans) to gain an edge over the competition, and while there is no substitute for experience and deep research, there are a few tips and tricks to keep in mind that can significantly speed up your learning process – and hopefully help you nab a couple of extra reward cards along the way.

Study the scoring system of Sorare

Every fantasy football game is a little different, and understanding what metrics Sorare values will be an important factor in finding the right players to pick. We’ve provided a short summary above, but the game is very detailed and involved, not to mention constantly updated, so spending some time with the ruleset before diving into the marketplace will serve you well.

Play the competition you’re familiar with

You can, of course, figure out the NBA from scratch, but if you’re already a La Liga fan, why waste all that existing knowledge? Understanding the dynamics between the teams and the players, knowing the hidden gems and identifying the big-name duds is the key to doing well in fantasy football, and there is no reason not to leverage the insights you’ve acquired as a fan over the years.

Who’s going to be in the starting line-up?

To ensure the best performance, you need to try and foresee as many of these circumstances as possible so that you can avoid those damned DNPs - especially when it comes to your captain..

DYOR

Fantasy football revolves around the form of individual players, so you can never rest on your laurels. Past insights become irrelevant in a blink of an eye, and if you’re not careful, someone else who continues to read and study the scene will easily pass you by on the scoreboard.

Spend your budget carefully

One of the most common errors we see is that new fantasy football players get too cute with their budget, trying to pick up all the hidden good deals they imagine lurking in the shadows. Truth is, you need the big guns. If you don’t purchase the elite players, your selection just won’t be consistent enough in results and performance to make up the gap.

BlackPool leading on Sorare*

If you are a player or enthusiast interested in fantasy football and blockchain, you will definitely want to get involved with Sorare. The presence of blue-chip competitions like the Premier League and La Liga on the football side of things (or the NBA and the MLB for our North American friends out there) adds a lot of excitement to the gameplay.

It is not without reason that Sorare is one of BlackPool’s flagship projects and yield generating investments. The strong foundations and the skill-based gameplay made us get in the door from the very beginning and reap the rewards of becoming an early adopter. The stats and results of our elite players tell the tale by themselves: by a combination of dedication and high-level research, YNWA and Max amassed over 2000 ETH in rewards won, finishing in the top three of their respective competitions over 300 times in total.

Our managers have secured and play with some of the top assets in the game... on the football side one of our teams can utilise the power of the first season Kylian Mbappe Unique and over on the NBA side we also benefit from the performances of the first Giannis Unique.

If you are interested in playing Sorare and compete against our OG’s, sign up here! To keep up with the latest developments of our BlackPool team, follow us on Twitter, Youtube and TikTok.