The Barcelona FC captain has announced his official inception into the non-fungible token (NFT) industry by investing $4.3 million in the fantasy football platform Sorare.
According to Sifted, Gerard Piqué entered the U.S.-based Cassius Family Seed Extension Round, adding a cumulative seed of $8.6 million to the network, enabling users to buy and exchange digital cards through NFT for professional footballers.
In addition, as stated by the group, the Barcelona player would join the Sorare team as a "strategic advisor" as part of the deal. The members of the Board include co-founders Nicolas Julia and Adrien Montfort and Christain Miele.
Sorare leverages Ethereum blockchain technologies to issue digital player cards that can be used to create fantasy soccer teams or exchange for real money. The company said almost 80 football clubs entered the network this year, including Porto, Zenit, Bayern Munich, Juventus, and others.
Piqué elaborated on the motives behind his latest business venture:
I see a big opportunity in the sports gaming sector of the digital economy, where the interest of the consumer is the single most valuable unit of currency. I'm looking forward to helping Sorare grow its relationships with soccer leagues, teams, and players around the world to create the best fantasy game that exists.
He also found out the need to diversify his portfolio in the run-up to potential retirement. He predicts a promising future in this kind of company, adding, "If you don't start doing these things when you're a player, I think that when you leave soccer there's a big hole where you don't know what to do."
The Barcelona FC captain mentioned his past of trading physical football cards and how times have changed now due to the digital fantasy cards:
I was a fan of soccer cards since I was a kid. 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.
Sorare has reported that its sales skyrocketed over 1,000% during 2020. Their projections expect growth in fantasy football and sports cards that could be worth $5.4 billion and $18.6 billion, respectively.
A survey about non-fungible token (NFT) trends recently reported by news.Bitcoin.com revealed that 47% of correspondents had heard of NFT, and among these, 63% of them had only a basic understanding about it, while 57% of them had never used them.
