Sorare: Football Product Roadmap Update — May 2023

Last month we shared a Product Roadmap update as part of our commitment to increase communication and collaboration with the Sorare community. As we head further into May, we’re excited to relay the latest roadmap update outlining progress and priorities.

Below please see updates on our Collection Game launch, Training experience, upgraded referral program, K League coverage, J League launch, and collectible card information verification.

Collection Game launch

On Thursday, May 25, we will roll out our new Collection Game. This feature will reward Managers for building collections involving their favorite leagues, clubs, and players. Managers can assemble club collections around specific clubs, seasons, and scarcities — such as 2022–23 Napoli Limited Cards or 2018–19 Club Brugge Rare Cards.

Inspired by the community’s enthusiasm for collecting, the new experience gives Sorare Managers a Collection Score for each club-based collection album they build. Each album’s Collection Score is totaled based on its player cards, with each card evaluated on its serial number, design edition, acquisition method, and how long it’s been part of the collection album (see breakdown graphic below).

Why collect? Aside from the fun of assembling players from your favorite teams and leagues, Managers can compete for bragging rights by climbing the Collection Leaderboards for their favorite clubs. Will you be your club’s No. 1 collector? Managers will also earn a Collection Bonus for all player cards in an album — in addition to any other card bonuses — to boost their chances of winning rewards in our Game Week competitions (see more below).

Collection Game rules

1. Each licensed club will have one collection per season and scarcity (aside from Common Cards, which are not eligible)
2. Each player card’s team collection eligibility is determined by the team logo on the card; for example, if a player in your collection album moves clubs, his player card will only apply to the previous collection, not in a collection featuring his new club.
3. Each card will have a Collection Score based on the criteria shared below
4. Cards listed or included in trade offers will not receive a Collection Score. Card Collection Scores start again when a player is unlisted or removed from a trade.
5. Each album will have a total Collection Score based on player cards in that album
6. There is a maximum of one player card per album. Player duplicates are not allowed in albums. If you have more than one player card eligible for the same collection, the card with the highest Collection Score will count toward your total score.
7. Each player card contributing to the Collection Score will receive a Collection Bonus, based on the Collection Score of the album
8. The Collection Bonus — an additional scoring bonus on a player’s in-game score — will apply in competitions where XP applies

Collection Game scoring

Your player cards contribute to your album’s total Collection Score in six different ways:

Your album’s total Collection Score contributes to a Collection Bonus. The Collection Bonus only applies to player cards that have contributed to your album’s Collection Score.

The Collection Bonus is an additional bonus to a player’s Game Week score. Currently, the bonus will only factor in competitions where XP applies.

For decades, sports fans have innovated the collectible space. We believe this feature further celebrates sport fandom and rewards the passionate collectors in our Sorare community. We can’t wait to see the collections you build!

Training update

The Training experience has been a challenge for much of our community, as submitting Training teams has sometimes been a time-consuming user experience void of strategy.

This year, we revamped the Training format and introduced Training team expansion items to the Club Shop. Thanks to the updates, the end-to-end Training experience requires more strategic thinking.

And starting Game Week 371 — Friday, May 12 — we are taking another step toward refining the Manager onboarding experience, as the “Training Competition” will become the “Academy Competition.”

In the Academy Competition, the top-500 Managers will win the following U.S. dollar amounts in ETH, each Game Week:

• 1st: $500
• 2nd: $300
• 3rd: $200
• 4th-500th: $5

This is in addition to the XP collected by player cards. We are evolving the Training experience and introducing ETH rewards for a number of reasons:

• The rebranded Academy becomes the first competition with XP and ETH rewards exclusively (no additional card rewards)
• This format provides opportunities to test new game modes for competitions with rewards
• It makes existing and future Club Shop items more engaging (e.g. Academy Expansion items)
• We rebranded “Training” to “Academy” to avoid introducing new competitions and make the Game Lobby less cluttered

Upgraded referral program

We’re excited to announce that our new referral program is live. The program introduces a new milestone and reward structure; in short, the more friends you refer to Sorare, the better the rewards you’ll receive.

For every friend you invite who collects five cards from the Primary Market (i.e. Scarcity Cards), both you and your friend will win a Tier-3 Limited Card. (See tier rewards breakdown here.) And for the following milestones, instead of a Tier-3 Limited Card, you will now receive a higher-level card:

• For 3 valid referrals, you will win a Tier-2 Limited Card
• For 5 valid referrals, you will win a Tier-4 Rare Card
• For 10 valid referrals, you will win a Tier-3 Rare Card
• For 15 valid referrals, you will win a Tier-4 Super Rare Card
• For 30 valid referrals, you will win a Tier-4 Unique Card

Please note that these rewards are not retroactive, they start from today. For more information and rules please consult our Help Center article.

K League coverage

As many of you know, we currently are unable to offer real-time coverage for K League 1 games this season. Unfortunately, Opta will not score games in real time with K League 1 TV, citing platform quality and stability. We are frustrated with the situation and committed to finding a solution with our data and league partners.

We understand the frustration from our community of K League 1 fans. While we progress with our efforts to find a solution as quickly as possible, we are launching a K League 1 Special Weekly competition at the end of May. Full details to come soon.

J League launch

Next week — the week of May 15 — we’re releasing new cards for all J1 League clubs. We’re excited to welcome the J1 League back to Sorare for a fourth consecutive season. Scout your favorite J1 League footballers to climb Champion Asia leaderboards and win rewards.

Trust and transparency (IPFS)

We recently launched an update that links a Sorare player card page to its IPFS data (which stands for Inter Planetary File System, learn more here). This update allows our Managers to easily verify the key information for their digital collectible.

This is an important update for transparency because unlike traditional Web2 game items, Sorare collectibles are owned by their users and not the company. The IPFS network allows our community to easily retrieve the attributes and visuals of their collectibles in a decentralized process — without the need for Sorare to be involved.

Next Steps

We recognize that a lot is evolving within a short space of time as we continue to build quickly and efficiently. Everything we are building is part of our larger vision to create the No. 1 football gaming and fan experience in the world.

In the coming months, we’ll unveil major features and gameplay updates to make Sorare a social- and community-first gaming experience. This new experience will onboard new waves of Managers and help establish product balance and consistency for the 2023–24 European football season.

We’ll keep listening to your feedback and iterating to collaboratively build the best football game. As such, we’ll soon share updates on new Club Shop items, our progress with a FIAT wallet system, and our commitment to maintaining ETH threshold reward amounts.

Thank you for being part of the Sorare community!