\Venture Capital News/ Gerard Piqué joins €3.5m investment in blockchain football card trading platform Sorare Piqué is one of a growing number of professional investors turning their hand to venture investing By Tim Smith in Barcelona 18 December 2020 \Startup Life Building the first sustainability unicorn By Mimi Billing 14 January 2021 \Venture Capital News/ Gerard Piqué joins €3.5m investment in blockchain football card trading platform Sorare Piqué is one of a growing number of professional investors turning their hand to venture investing By Tim Smith in Barcelona 18 December 2020 Barcelona FC captain Gerard Piqué is one of those footballers who doesn’t only make headlines on the pitch. He is an outspoken supporter of a referendum on Catalan independence, husband to global superstar Shakira, and more recently an active venture investor. Speaking at an embargoed press conference yesterday, the Barca centre back announced his backing of Sorare, a digital alternative to the age-old tradition of football trading cards. Piqué joins a €3.5m seed extension round led by the US-based Cassius Family fund. The Sorare fantasy league interface When asked why he’d decided to invest in Sorare, Piqué cited his nostalgia for trading physical football stickers as a child. Advertisement “I was a fan of soccer cards since I was a kid,” he says. “You had to go and buy a pack of stickers and collect all the players. As an entrepreneur I think the world of football has to innovate. At the end of the day it’s the next step, the next generations will collect these kinds of assets and digital cards.” Blockchain Sorare uses Ethereum blockchain technology to produce limited runs of digital player cards, which can then be used to assemble a fantasy football team, or traded for real money. Sorare chief executive Nicolas Julia said that, by producing cards on the Ethereum blockchain, Sorare can give digital collectible items value, by guaranteeing the scarcity of limited edition cards. “You can think about it as a way to have authenticated items that are scarce and where you know that if I saw I’m going to issue 100 editions of a Gerard Pique card, you know it can’t be one more,” he says. Earlier this month, a player card for Paris Saint-Germain forward sold for €55,105 on Sorare’s peer-to-peer secondary market, proving that digital collectibles could indeed have a lucrative future. Digital loot Monetizing digital collectibles is not without controversy in the football world. Electronic Arts’ are currently facing a legal challenge in France, with the claimant arguing that the Fifa video game’s in-game purchases should be classed as gambling. In Fifa, players exchange money for “packs”, which are then opened to reveal the digital players the customer can then use to play with online. Sorare’s Julia says that the startup has actively avoided the randomised unboxing thrill, which many have criticised as addictive. “Some companies do have controversies over “loot boxes”. Loot boxes can be compared to gambling because you don’t know what’s in the pack,” he explains. “From day one we said we’re going to go a different way, it’s going to be transparent where you know what you’re buying.” Julia says that with Sorare, users are encouraged to scout future talents, by buying cards of less well-known players, whose value will then rise if the player is successful. He adds that the minimum age for Sorare users is 18, and not intended for children. Gerard Piqué is one of a growing number of football players who are investing in startups and technology, something which makes sense to him, given footballers’ short playing careers. “I always say that a football career ends pretty quick, when you’re 33 or 34 years old. There’s a moment when you have to stop playing football and then you have a whole life to do different things,” he says. “If you don’t start doing these things when you’re a player, I think that when you leave football there’s a big hole where you don’t know what to do.” And given the deep pockets of today’s modern football stars, there’s every reason to believe that players and former players will continue the trend of investing in European startups. (NOTE: A correction was made on 21/12/2020, to reflect the fact that Gerard Piqué is not an outspoken supporter of Catalan independence, but a supporter of a referendum on Catalan independence.) 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Take the survey Terms of Use Related Articles The 10 biggest healthtech rounds of 2020 By Mimi Billing Click here to read more The 10 biggest funding rounds in Spain 2020 By Tim Smith in Barcelona Click here to read more Gerard Piqué joins €3.5m investment in blockchain football card trading platform Sorare By Tim Smith in Barcelona Click here to read more The startup that launched 2,000 businesses: Jeff raises $21m for US launch By Tim Smith in Barcelona Click here to read more Get the best of Sifted in your inbox By entering your email you agree to Sifted’s Terms of Use Sign up to \Future Proof Sifted’s weekly \Corporate Innovation roundup email By entering your email you agree to Sifted’s Terms of Use Most Read 1 \Fintech Starling Bank wants to buy a lender 2 \Startup Life Chief of staff: the ‘must-have hire’ for startup CEOs? 3 \Fintech The 10 fastest fintechs to reach billion dollar valuations 4 \Venture Capital Rich Europeans need to invest 10% of their money into tech and stop buying stupid stuff like hotels 5 \Public and Academic European Commission makes its first equity investments into startups 3 Join the conversation Subscribe newest oldest most voted Notify of new follow-up comments new replies to my comments Critical ThinkerPiqué is NOT “an outspoken supporter of Catalan independence”, I would dare you to find a source proving such claim. He has defended the so-called “right to decide”, but he has never declared his support for an independent Catalonia. A correction would be welcome. Tim Smith in BarcelonaThanks for your comment. It’s a fair remark and we will make a correction. We appreciate that him being sympathetic towards some of the wishes of the independence movement does not equate to supporting independence itself, and that is an important distinction. Apologies from the team. Critical ThinkerThanks for the swift correction.
Gerard Piqué joins €3.5m investment in blockchain football card trading platform Sorare By Tim Smith in Barcelona Click here to read more
The startup that launched 2,000 businesses: Jeff raises $21m for US launch By Tim Smith in Barcelona Click here to read more