Sorare: Football Product Roadmap Update: What’s In Store for 2023–24 Season
At Sorare, we’re innovating and taking the beautiful game to new heights. We’re building the closest thing to being a club owner and one step beyond. We’re using our unique blend of digital trading cards and fantasy experience to innovate a new standard for what it means to be a football fan.
This isn’t simulation gaming. We’re building something real, bridging the digital with the real world, and setting new standards for football connection.
To fulfill our vision, our updates for the 2023–24 Sorare season focus on more passion, more power, and more connection.
- Passion through new fantasy gameplay that offer high levels of engagement
- Ownership by further gamifying our platform so Managers can customize and control every aspect of their club to find that winning edge
- Connection by fortifying our bridge between digital and real world, and offering fan experiences that were once untouchable
All this lifts the curtain to Sorare’s most ambitious season yet. Get ready for September. We’re giving a new meaning to #OwnYourGame.
More Passion: New Gameplay & Competition Formats
For the 2023–24 season, we’re adding two new competition gameplay loops to offer more opportunities to compete and take your football passion to new heights on Sorare.
Going long!
We’re delighted to announce the 23–24 season kicks off the introduction of long-format competitions to Sorare.
We will start by introducing long-format leaderboards to Global All-Star, with the goal of launching them to more existing competitions as well as some special weeklies later in the season.
- Starting September, Global All Star competitions will have two leaderboards: short and long-format
- Long-format leaderboards run across eight Game Weeks
- For the first long-format leaderboard, your top-four scores only will accumulate toward your final leaderboard score
- To compete in the long-format leaderboard, you just need to submit a team into the Global All Star Competition
- We will balance existing Global All Star rewards across long-format and short-format prize pools. The long-format competition will distribute more rewards than the short format, and top performers will be rewarded with epic prizes.*
- We’ll announce the card rewards in greater details, including the exact card rewards for podium finishes ahead of the first long-format competition
- For special occasions, we’re also adding VIP tickets and experience rewards for top spot finishers
*Please note that we updated this point on 8th August 2023. Upon review we felt that the long-format competitions deserved more rewards than the short-format. Read our latest rewards balance update for more info.
A new “Kick-Off” game mode for fans who love football!
We are working on a brand new game mode which will initially launch on our mobile app. Please note that Kick-Off game mode is very different from the current Kick-Off competition, and that the Kick-Off competition and Kick-Off game mode naming could change.
This new game mode will be a quick, social, and mobile-first experience where you can play with or against your friends in specific match modes every day.
At the bar with your friends to watch your favorite derby? All of you can open up the Sorare app, select your five-card derby lineup of players, and prove once and for all who knows football best! (Newsflash: It will always be you, the Sorare OG.)
Kick-Off is being built to be fun for new fans but also for our existing community, as you’ll be able to compete with all card scarcities.
Within this game mode, we’re testing multiple key directions for our beta launch, including: daily leaderboards with promotion and relegation; a clan feature (empowering groups of friends to play against groups of friends); and a head-to-head format! This will be an immediate entry point for new Sorare Managers with natural loops to the existing core game.
Pieced with the Cash Wallet launch (coming very soon), it will offer a new opportunity for Sorare to grow and reach football fans across the globe.
But that’s all we’re saying for now. Expect more sneak peeks next month!
With kick-off and regular long-format competitions, the 2023–24 season will see competitions operate in daily, weekly, and monthly formats.
We’re breaking out of the standard Game Week model. For our community, this presents new ways to strategize and connect with the players you love. For Sorare, we can be more ambitious with our growth and conversion plans through a social app where fan passion and connection is immediate.
Other Gameplay Product Roadmap Updates
⬛ We are lowering Super Rare eligibility in Unique competitions from two Super Rares allowed to a maximum of one. The total number of Unique cards on the platform is now high enough for us to update Unique competition eligibility.
🧮 We will make no changes to the Sorare Scoring Matrix for the 2023–24 European Football season.
🇸🇦 To maintain a more healthy game balance, we will only ever cover leagues when we have licensed clubs in that league (the Chinese Super League will remain as covered as coverage here was introduced before our rule). Cards in non-licensed leagues competing for card rewards from licensed clubs would lead to an unhealthy game balance. We will not cover the Saudi Arabian League for the 2023–24 season and will re-evaluate the situation before the next season starts.
More Power: Introducing Club Facilities
The 2023–24 Sorare season launches new features that give you, the Sorare Managers, more tools than ever to connect and own every aspect of your club on a daily basis.
Starting September 2023, Sorare Managers can help build their club legacy through the Club Facilities feature. In Club Facilities, you can build your stadium and facilities from the ground up along with managing your squad, staff, and club identity.
We will initially launch with two facility centers (Physio and Training) that allow you to manage card bonuses, with the goal to follow up with more facilities landing soon after, such as your very own stadium and more.
Managers will unlock and build their facilities through the Club Shop and in-game achievements.
Your Training Center
Following the change of the Training Competition to Academy, we are delighted to announce that we’ll be launching the Training Facility feature.
Here’s how the Training Facility will initially work:
- Submit groups of player cards to your Training Facility
- Cards in training accumulate XP more quickly than by playing in other game modes
- The facility can be upgraded via the Club Shop to accommodate more cards
This is just a first step. We have plans to launch training drill items in the Club Shop that will cater to many different strategies. For example, if you play U23 competitions exclusively, you may want to claim a temporary U23 training drill that boosts a player card’s XP a little more quickly.
For our initial facilities, we’re taking inspiration from the biggest football games in the world, but we’re always looking for new opportunities to be innovative. We will keep an eye on our community feedback for inspiration. 😉
Your Physio Center
In your Physio Center, you can manage your player’s fitness by speeding up the fitness recovery of your player cards. Fitness is a new card bonus that is part of our larger bonus restructure (we explain bonus updates in more detail below).
How the new Fitness Bonus works:
- With the Fitness Bonus, cards at full fitness will benefit from a 10 percent bonus applied to their Game Week score.
- Fitness Bonuses range from 0–10 percent
- All player cards start with a 10 percent Fitness Bonus. A player card’s Fitness Bonus only decreases if the card is included in a Game Week lineup and starts or subs for their team in that particular Game Week
- Fitness Bonuses increase for any player cards that are not used during a Game Week
This is where the Physio Center comes into play. Managers can send their players who need a rest to the Physio Center to restore their fitness more quickly.
Rest Packs (Physio Item) will also be available in the Club Shop and can be bought with Coins or money. Rest packs can also be won for in-game achievements or rewards. On top of adding a new gameplay strategy, the Fitness Bonus model with rest packs benefits Sorare’s long-term health and sustainability. It offers a new revenue stream, which offers us even more market stability.
We will follow-up with key details with an update on Fitness Bonus in the coming weeks.
For our initial facilities, we’re taking inspiration from the biggest football games in the world, but we’re always looking for new opportunities to be innovative. We will keep an eye on our community feedback for inspiration. 😉
More Ownership: Four Bonuses to Build Winning Strategies
For the 2023–24 season, we’re updating our card bonus model to offer Managers more control and deeper levels to strategize. On top of this, we’re rebalancing card bonuses so they more accurately reflect our gameplay evolution of the last six months. We’re strengthening our gameplay long-term sustainability, and to do this we need to make adjustments to the model.
New Fitness Bonus
As mentioned above, starting September 2023, we will introduce a new Fitness Bonus as part of our card bonus rework and Club Facilities launch.
The new Fitness Bonus adds a basic layer of strategy for our Managers when competing in Game Week competitions.
Experience Points (XP) Update
Our gameplay structure has significantly evolved since initially launching our Experience Points formula in 2019. The gameplay has greatly changed over the last four years, and we feel that the time is right to make tweaks to our XP formula to improve our gameplay balance.
Please read our updated Help Center article to learn more about the new formula.
In a nutshell, the final-level XP requirement remains the same (24,500 points). Compared to the current formula, with the new formula, XP in the new system will simply accumulate more slowly in the initial months, and will increase more quickly after a few months.
To add to this update, as of September 2023, Cards must be submitted into your Training facility or competitions that reward XP to accumulate XP. Unused cards will no longer passively accumulate XP.
The above changes allow us to make key changes to our larger vision elsewhere (e.g. club Facilities launch and the eventual reintroduction of card bonuses to Capped Modes).
We are also planning to introduce a new card XP summary that will allow you to more easily track changes to your player’s XP growth at the end of each Game Week.
New Season Bonus
Following community feedback, we have simplified when the New Season Bonuses expire for a club. New season bonuses will now expire as soon as the first Game Week opens featuring the opening domestic league fixture for your player card’s club (this change will only go live in September).
For example, Season Bonuses for 2023–24 Premier League cards will expire once the first Game Week featuring 2024–25 Premier League fixtures starts. We are making this change so that managers don’t have a bonus advantage if a player moves to a non-licensed club or if the relaunch of a club is delayed compared to other clubs in that league.
All Card Bonus updates, including the New Season Bonus rule change, will go live in September.
Collection Bonus
The Collection Bonus was a first step toward our wider bonus rework. We are happy with the current Collection Bonus and will make no changes to the Collection Score rules this season.
To recap, here are the four Card Bonuses starting September 2023:
👶 New Season Bonus (5%) is the immediate and temporary bonus that new cards receive every year. It’s an easy concept to understand.
🏃♂️ Fitness (0–10%) increases and decreases very slightly from Game Week. It’s straightforward and can be easily managed from a Game Week to Game Week basis.
🧮 XP (0–10%) are for the Sorare Managers that have shown belief in a player and are rewarded for their engagement and forward-thinking. It’s a Card Bonus that Managers use as a competitive advantage through deep strategic thinking.
❤️ Collection Bonus (0–5%) rewards the collectors and diehard fans in our community. Beyond a Collection Bonus, we are working for Collection scores to also unlock new exclusive items in the Club Shop such as VIP tickets, signed jerseys, and Once In A Lifetime experiences.
New ETH Threshold and Card Bonuses in Capped Mode
Following community feedback and our new Card Bonus model (see above), we will reintroduce all four above Card Bonuses to our Capped Mode competitions along with the Captain Bonus of 20 percent.
In order to offer all Managers a fair and exciting experience and maintain our current balance, we will be increasing the new needed points threshold from 250 points to 300 points. This new target for ETH Thresholds will not make hitting the target more difficult. We have considered the impact of the four card bonuses and captain bonus when setting this new points threshold.
Here is an example of the impact of bonuses in action from a team that recently hit the ETH threshold:
Scarcity bonuses don’t apply in Capped Modes 240. Please note that the new 300-points target could slightly decrease or increase based on our initial data review following successive Game Weeks with the new model. Similar to how we launched Capped Modes, we will closely monitor our data and make any necessary adjustments so that the current balance remains consistent. Last time our review period took 6–8 Game Weeks.
More Connection: A New Dimension
For the 2023–24 season, Sorare Cards will enter a new dimension! For the first time, we will be launching 3D Sorare cards. Each season we develop and enhance our card designs so that the evolution is consistent, but always innovative.
The 2023–24 season cards are by far our most ambitious designs yet. They will have a 3D component with a front and back. Managers will be able to rotate their card by moving their screen and feel more connected than ever to their cards. Special Edition cards will have different front and back designs.
Stay tuned, the cards are coming soon!
More Connection: Where Fantasy Meets Reality
As part of the 2023–24 season, we will continue to surprise and delight our community with even more real-life rewards and once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
In 2022–23, our community won thousands of tickets and jerseys. Imagine hopping on a private plane with the team you love as they fly to a Champions League knockout game or playing football with the biggest legends in the game. All this was made possible last season.
Where will we go in the 2023–24 season?
Here’s a quick run-down of how passion, ownership all lead to more fan connection:
- Through the Collections feature, top collectors will soon be able to unlock VIP tickets, signed jerseys, and once-in-a lifetime experience for some of their favourite clubs in the Club Shop
- We will ramp up our Special Weeklies and offer more VIP tickets, jerseys, and once -a-lifetime prizes
- This month, we will drop Sorare hats in the Club Shop, with Sorare hoodies following soon after
- We will continue to support community meet-ups with merchandise, tickets, and jerseys. Follow #SorareOnTour to get all the updates.
Thank you to our Community ❤️
Through passion, ownership and connection, we strongly believe that the above roadmap puts Sorare in an excellent position to grow healthily and offers our community new opportunities to strategize, connect, and win amazing rewards along the way.
We’ll keep an eye on your feedback and follow up with more details and exact launch dates on all the above in the coming weeks.
🎙️ Also, @DanSorare will take part in a SorareData livestream next week with community members to review and discuss the updates in full. He will also answer your most important questions.
Many thanks for being part of the Sorare community and good luck with your Game Weeks!
