Sports teams and leagues are searching for different ways to engage with and connect to new audiences to attract younger people and improve engagement among sports enthusiasts.
Major League Baseball is following a similar path and made the announcement regarding its collaboration with an NFT gaming firm, Sorare, for launching an NFT-based fantasy-style game this summer.
Sorare is going to be the official NFT baseball game partner of MLB and will be lending fans a platform to play fantasy games while buying, selling, and collecting NFTs of MLB players. Its USP is that it’s not going to be a draft-style game. Teams will be formed from the NFT cards that a specific fan owns.
Rob Manfred, the MLB commissioner, said in a statement that the connection with their fans is important to them and we understand the significance of that bond. The focus of the company is to transform fandom using an innovative combination of technology, sports, and gaming, letting fans truly be the owner of the game that they are passionate about and also reach a wider audience.
Details regarding the games, awards, and prizes aren’t revealed yet, however similar games Sorare has earlier built such games for soccer leagues including the Major League Soccer, Bundesliga, and Copa America which consists of various prizes for fans who collect NFTs.
1.8 million registered users on Sorare’s platform, around 184 countries, acted as part of the appeal for the MLB. It opened the way to connect to an audience that baseball reached in the past.
Since 2007, an annual dip in average attendance is seen in MLB, when it experienced 79.4 million fans reduced to just 68.5 million in 2019. Since 2020 due to COVID-19, there is an impact on Attendance so those numbers aren’t included in any date.
Sorare has witnessed a 32% month-on-month rise in growth of active users and collected over $325 million in sales in 2021 with a hope to double it this year.
Partnerships with 247 soccer clubs contribute to part of the success and will now expand with the addition of MLB teams.
Executive director of Major League Baseball Players Association, Tony Clark, revealed Sorare has developed a new baseball gaming experience that will create excitement among fans by collecting players’ NFTs, “building winning lineups and competing against baseball fans all over the world.”
