Beginners guide to Sorare
Frequently Asked Questions
Last updated on: 6/07/2023
Introduction
At its core, Sorare is a fantasy football game. Although not as easy to explain because of the new technologies like crypto/blockchain that are being used. Sorare is a football fantasy game where players buy, sell, trade, and manage a virtual team of five players with digital cards. The game uses blockchain technology based on the cryptocurrency Ethereum
In this extensive guide, we'll explain everything you need, from start to finish.
Keep in mind that Sorare is a relatively new platform, and as such, it's subject to changes, updates, and new features. We will be keeping this Sorare beginners guide up to date.
What is Sorare?
Sorare is a new form of fantasy football game where you collect, buy, trade or sell digital football cards. Each card is a non-fungible token (NFT), meaning it is a unique digital asset that cannot be replicated or replaced. Sorare's cards are verified and authenticated on the Ethereum blockchain, providing a secure and transparent way to own and trade digital collectibles.
These cards can be used in multiple competitions which is the gaming aspect of Sorare. In these leagues, you'll compete for high scores and rewards. The game uses blockchain technology based on the Ethereum crypto coin.
when did Sorare launch?
Sorare was developed in 2018 by Nicolas Julia and Adrien Montfort and launched in 2019.
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Sorare began as a small project and since then, it has grown to have a large user base and partnerships with major football clubs, including Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, and Atletico Madrid, as well as partnerships with leading blockchain companies and gaming platforms.
Is Sorare legit?
Short answer: yes!
Long answer: The French company Sorare is a completely new concept and uses new technology. Most people do not trust anything new or unknown right away. Although Sorare has been chiseling on brand awareness and adding high-name investors. Players like Mbappé, Griezmann, Messi, Pique, Serena Williams, and many others are invested in Sorare, be it as investors or advisors.
How to start with sorare?
Complete the Sorare onboarding process and you'll get your first common cards. This process is completely free of charge. Go to the website and sign up.
However, you can sign-up by using a referral link. This link will act completely the same but you'll get an extra common card to start your journey. If you ever decide to start buying limited cards through the Sorare auction market, after buying 5 cards, you'll get an extra limited card for free. And so do we. So it's a win/win.
We recommend starting with the common leagues. If you start playing with common cards you'll get a feel for the game and can explore it without risks or engagements.
How do I play Sorare?
You compose a virtual team of five players. A goalkeeper, a defender, a midfielder, and a forward + one extra field player.
Your players will get a score that is based on their performance in their real-world football game. These points are calculated utilizing a scoring matrix from a third-party data website called Opta. If your team scores high, you will be rewarded with other cards, shirts, tickets for football games, or Ethereum.
I've always found that explaining with an example works best. So in the screenshot on the left, you can see my line-up for the Limited Challenger Europe competition. The scores for this gameweek are under the players.
The rewards change every week. In this gameweek my team did rather well with a score of 352 points and I won a tier 3 limited card.
How is the Score calculated?
The player’s score is calculated based on the player’s real-life performance during a match. These points are calculated utilizing a scoring matrix from a third-party data website called Opta. Player scores on Sorare range from 0 to 100. On a player’s page, you will find the score of his players for the last 5 games. The higher, the better of course.
DNP stands for “Did Not Play”, in which case your player will have scored zero points. If your player sit on the bench the whole match, you'll get zero points.
We've made an article about the recent changes the scoring matrix has gone through. You can read the article on our blog of course.
Is Sorare free?
Yes, you can play Sorare for free. ​No need for creditcards.
You can play Sorare for free using the 'common' cards. These cards are white colored and can't be traded or sold, but can be used in various competitions where you have a, albeit low, chance of winning a 'limited' card, which is worth some money.
The most popular is the common league, with approximately 100.000 managers fielding a five-a-side common team. The 100 managers who got the highest score, get a limited card as a reward.
So that's a 0,1% chance.
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Recently Sorare has been launching a few draft leagues, to get people playing without spending money.
How to get free Sorare cards?
It is really easy to start with Sorare. Go to the website and sign up. No need for credit cards or buying crypto coins.
However, you can sign-up by using a referral link. This link will act completely the same but you'll get an extra common card to start your journey. If you ever decide to start buying limited cards through the Sorare auction market, after buying 5 cards, you'll get an extra limited card for free. And so do we. So it's a win/win.
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You can use our referral link, thank you for the support.
What type of sorare cards are there?
There are five main types of Sorare cards:
Common: White. You'll get these for free when completing the onboarding process and competing in the draft leagues. Unlimited scarcity. They'll reset after a period of time. Common Sorare cards or White/Silver cards as they are also called, can not be traded or sold.
The other cards you'll need to buy or trade from other players or buy from Sorare through an auction.
Limited: Yellow. Max 1000 cards every year are minted.
Rare: Red. Max 100 cards every year are minted.
Super-Rare: Blue. Max 10 cards every year are minted.
Unique: Black. Max 1 card is minted per year. Of course, a unique card will be vastly more expensive than a limited card.
How do I get Sorare cards?
There are a few ways to get Sorare cards.
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Rewards.
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Compete in Sorare leagues and if your team does well, you'll get Sorare cards as a reward.
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Alternatively, you can compete in side competitions on other websites like CaptainSorare, SorareMega, Sorare Academy, and others. Those side competitions are mostly free.
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Another option is competing in the giveaways by content creators on social media.
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New card auctions.
You can buy cards directly from Sorare. These cards have been minted by Sorare and have never been owned by anyone else and are distributed by an auction system.
Manager sales.
You can buy player cards from other managers on the platform. These player cards have a set purchase price. However, you can bargain with managers to get a better price.
How much does Sorare cost?
That's completely up to you. You can play Sorare for free.
If you do end up making the jump to invest a few dollars, then you'll need to do some research on what competitions you want to compete in, what players you want, etc.
This brings us to the Sorare goalkeeper dilemma and the reason we started this blog. A starting Sorare goalkeeper can cost a few euros. There are a few competition where you only need 4 cards of a specific scarcity. This way you do not need to buy an expensive Sorare goalkeeper right away.
You can get a decent limited team with 25 euros nowadays if you spend it wisely, without a goalkeeper of course.
The choice of league you want to compete in is very important. The Champions Europe League is a competition with the big 5 leagues in Europe. It is harder and more expensive to be competitive than in the for example Asian league.
How to get Sorare rewards?
Getting a competitive team of 5 Sorare cards/players and competing in the Sorare leagues is the short & sweet version.
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The longer version is more nuanced as you'll need to do some research to get a competitive line-up.
Things you'll need to research: What league should I start in, when to buy, what players should I buy, etc.
What Sorare league should I compete it?
Well, that's completely up to you. We do suggest that you start in a league where you at least know the basics of having a chance to follow it. If you have knowledge of the J-League, we suggest starting with the Asian leagues. If you follow the MLS closely, start with that league.
However, I did not listen to my own advice. I have knowledge of the Jupiler Pro League and Europe in general, but I started with the J-League because that league was on break and the prices of the limited Sorare cards were a lot cheaper. In the summer, I then bought players from Europe because the players were cheaper than in the season.
What Sorare tools do you recommend?
SorareData is today the largest database about the Sorare game and an essential tool to perform and make money on the platform. SorareData is a free resource that can be accessed by anyone. Simply navigate to Soraredata.com and register. We recommend that you link your Sorare account with Soraredata, which makes the data stretch a little further and gives you more analysis tools.
It offers game-changing features, from advising what the average price of a specific player is, to telling you what rewards you would have won, had you used a specific line-up. It also provided data on player offers, which makes things very interesting in the secondary market.
There is also a paying subscription that gives even more tools to get more info from the market.
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I use Soraredata mostly for the following information: Scouting new players that might fit my teams, checking the card's price history, prediction of scoring lineups, adding a alarm if a certain player drop in price, and much, much more.
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Another great resource is the season planner calendar, made by the people of Sorarescout.
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Playsharper is a community-driven website. Each gameweek, specialists of each league will draw the most likely starting 11 per team. The specialist takes note of injuries, bans, and possible rotations, so you don't have to. This will save you hours of googling to check if a player is playing or not, especially for leagues that are not easy to follow yourself.
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Transfermarkt is a website that provides information on player transfers, transfer rumors, contracts, and values in professional football. It also includes stats and profiles on players and teams, making it a useful resource for scouts.
How to scout for new players?
We mostly use Soraredata to scout for possible players because of loads of filter opportunities in the Sorare database. It's important to do your research before purchasing a new player. Price fluctuations can occur due to transfers, media coverage, injuries, the ending of seasons, and/or changes in form. If a player starts bubbling up in the media, you're probably already too late to get him at a good price.
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Other opportunities are following content creators who share their knowledge and learn to read between the lines. Like us :).
How to deposit money into sorare?
There are a few ways to get money into Sorare.
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RAMP or Moonpay – Ramp/Moonpay is great for beginners who may be uncertain about venturing into crypto for the first time. It allows you to quickly add funds using your credit or debit card in a matter of minutes. They’ll take a small percentage of the fee but it’s a quick and easy way to top up your wallet with small or large amounts. With Ramp or Moonpay you can fund your wallet using your preferred method including Apple Pay, Google Pay, bank transfers, and more.
Digital wallets like MetaMask or Portis – For players who already have experience with crypto, or for players who are making bigger deposits (over 500 euros) we recommend using a digital wallet such as MetaMask and buying your ETH off an exchange such as Binance or Coinbase. Just make sure the adress is 100% correct. I highly recommend sending a small amount first to see if everything is good to go.
Credit or debit card – For a quick purchase you can buy a player directly from the auction or secondary market using your card. There will be a small fee from most banks, and the other downside is that the ETH won’t be available in your wallet and so you won’t be able to make offers.
How to redraw money from sorare?
You can withdraw funds to any valid Ethereum wallet by entering its address. Paste your ETH wallet/deposit address from your exchange into the box and decide how much you would like to send.
The ETH will then be sent to your wallet, this usually takes around 10-20 minutes for the transaction to be confirmed on the Blockchain. This depends on the time of day.
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Just make sure the adress is 100% correct. I highly recommend sending a small amount first to see if everything is good to go.
How to earn money with sorare?
There are two main ways to earn money from playing Sorare.
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Rewards. The first one is of course buying cards, fielding a team, and winning rewards.
Trading. The second option is more interesting in my opinion. Doing the research on players so you can buy low and, hopefully, sell high. We've made an extensive article about this with Belgian goalkeeper Mile Svilar as an example. There are tons of reasons prices fluctuate. To name a few: transfers, media coverage, injuries, the ending of seasons, and/or changes in form.
I just want to point out that even if you did all the research, your player could break his leg or get transferred to Qatar (or some other league that isn't covered). The cards would be useless and will drop significantly in price.
Ethereum. As Ethereum's price fluctuates, which it does frequently, so too does its market. As the ETH market drops 20%, so does the price of your gallery.
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Just be careful and only play with money you can afford to lose.
Why are sorare goalkeepers so expensive?
Welcome to the Sorare goalkeeper dilemma and the reason we started this blog.
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Utility is the keyword in Sorare. They higher the utility of the card, the higher its price.
Sorare goalkeepers are more expensive than field players because there are fewer of them available on the platform. This is because you got only one starting goalkeeper per team, but you got, at least, 10 other field players you can use in your Sorare roster.
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To give an example. There are only a few starting goalkeepers you can use in the under23 league, so that means a starting goalkeeper that is under 23 years old, is even more expensive than a normal starting goalkeeper.
Which Sorare goalkeeper should i buy?
There are so many variables to keep in mind before buying a goalkeeper and you should do your own research.
@Elbelga made an extensive article about the research he does before buying a goalkeeper.
You can read his blog post here: These six things you must do before buying a goalkeeper.
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You can however sign up for our mailing list and get an e-mail every time we post a new article. We try to write articles about market trends and/or possibilities that show in the market and how you can profit from that.
WHat is Sorare ACADEMY?
Every Sorare card has an XP bonus. This is a percentage that is added to the final score of your player. So in short, the higher the better.
Every card bought from the Sorare auction is new and they start with 5% experience. Whenever you use a card, the experience grows and so does the bonus on the card. At the end of the season the XP is lowered and the new cards flood the market. You can still use the 'old' cards, albeit they'll have a lower XP than new cards.
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Cards that don't get much action in your gallery because of bad scores, or injuries, ... you can field them in training. This will allow your card to get XP. There is a limit of three teams you can enter, so choose your players wisely. This is just meant to help unused cards get XP.
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What happens when a player retires?
The price of a Sorare card is highly correlated with its utility.
When a player retires, his use on the Sorare platform vanishes and his price will drop to next to nothing. The only thing that remains is a 'collectability' value.
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There are other reasons a card might lose its complete utility. A big injury is one; but a transfer to a league that isn't covered by Sorare is another. Cristiano Ronaldo made the transfer to the Saudi-team Al-Nassr to give an example. With the transfer, the cards of CR7 lost all utility.
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Cards with no utility are indicated with a red X symbol. However, the X is added when Sorare ads it, not directly when the cards lose utility. So keep up to date with rumors to get an edge over other Sorare managers.
What are legend cards?
Each Sorare legend card represents a historic season in the player’s career. A season that is still spoken about by fans across the world each day. A season that brought so much joy, and passion to football fans around the world. In some cases, the players had numerous legendary seasons worthy of a card.
Sorare legend cards can only be used in Legend tournaments. During these new tournaments, Legends will take the score of the highest-scoring player of their club for their position.
What leagues are covered by Sorare?
Sorare covers more than 50 leagues and counting.
You can find the complete list of covered competitions on the Sorare website.
What Happens if sorare loses a licence?
If a license for the cards were lost, Sorare would no longer be able to mint new NFTs.
Although the scarcity of Sorare’s cards means they are prized as collectible items, their utility contributes to their value. If Sorare were to lose one of its exclusive licenses, then it would be unable to mint new NFTs and existing cards would probably lose much of their functionality and, potentially, their value on the open market.
Another train of thought is: it might be possible the Sorare competition might continue with only the already minted cards. This would mean the scarcity is lower = higher prices per card.
Is Sorare Gambling?
Sorare is not a gambling platform.
This question has been raised quite a few times, especially in regard to the fact that Ethereum prices can rise or fall quite quickly. It mostly seems the governments and current legislation don't get a grip on what Sorare is at this time.