Sorare partners with the NBA and NBPA to launch an NFT fantasy basketball game

The game is expected to launch in time for the upcoming 2022-23 NBA season, which begins in October.

September 08, 2022 - Tom Peters

Paris-based Web3 startup Sorare made a name for itself in the blockchain sports gaming scene when it released its NFT-based fantasy football game, followed by a baseball one.

Now, the company is looking to add basketball to its repertoire of gaming titles.

On Wednesday, Sorare announced a long-term partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA), and National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), becoming the Official NFT Fantasy Partner of the NBA.

As part of the deal, Sorare has been licensed to develop a free-to-play digital collectible-based fantasy basketball game, titled Sorare: NBA, to be released this fall for the NBA’s 2022-23 season.

Similar to its baseball and football fantasy games, players will be able to buy and sell NFT cards of basketballers and use them to form teams. Players can enter their teams into mini-leagues, where team performance is based on actual basketballers’ performance in real life. Top players in the Sorare fantasy leagues are rewarded with Ethereum tokens and valuable NFT cards.

'Our partnership with Sorare will give NBA fans an entirely new way to engage with our teams and players,' said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. 'With Sorare’s emerging NFT fantasy platform, we see significant opportunities to broaden our community of fans and grow NBA basketball around the world.'

With its upcoming offering, the French company will be looking to secure a stronger foothold in the US. Currently, Sorare has about two million users, primarily based in Europe and Asia, thanks to the popularity of football in those regions.

Offering baseball, and now, basketball games is a good way for the company to expand into the American market since both sports are more watched there.

At the same time, the NBA continues to show interest in the wider Web3 sector. It was the first major American sport to adopt NFTs after collaborating with Dapper Labs for NBA Top Shot, a video-based NFT collectibles platform on the Flow blockchain.

It has also launched its NFT collection on Ethereum and signed a multi-year partnership deal with Coinbase along with the WNBA for a crypto sponsorship.

With all of these, though, the NBA says it is just getting started with its Web3 foray.

Photo: Take-two