$28M Volume on Sorare NBA 💸
At long last, we have the full data behind Sorare's numbers. Featuring NBA, MLB, Soccer, and how much was spent on Auctions.
Here’s something very few people know about me:
I’m a good listener.
I listen to my wife. I listen to my podcast guests. And I listen to our community when they respond to our weekly Top Traded Sports Collections on Twitter:
For years, Sorare volume data has come blended; the numbers we pull include both Primary (Auctions) and Secondary Sales. They also include all 3x sports on the platform - Soccer, NBA, MLB.
Sorare uses a single, well-filtered marketplace for all their NFTs. As a result, their volume looks enormous on a weekly basis, and we’ve been unable to split it out.
Until today.
The Big Numbers
Thanks to Sorare Tools, I’ve been able to obtain a full data set of Sorare.
Here’s the TLDR. Scroll down for the full charts.
Total Lifetime Sales from Auctions (Primary):
NBA $14.8M (52%)
MLB $5.5M (75%)
Soccer $270M (33%)
Manager Sales (Secondary):
NBA $13.6M (48%)
MLB $1.8M (25%)
Soccer $548M (67%)
The Highlights:
Soccer hit a record $342M in 2022, but is on pace for only half of that in 2023.
NBA peaked in January 2023 ($4.3M) but may hit that again in February 2023.
MLB peaked in September 2022 ($521k), albeit it did not have a full season.
The Bigger Picture
74% of Auction Sales in the last 6-months were from Soccer.
90% of Manager Sales in the last 6-months were from Soccer.
Manager Sales outweigh Auction Sales on Soccer, 67% > 33%. However, its the other way around for NBA and MLB (so far).
We got all the charts below, on top of a quick primer on how Sorare works.
Hope you enjoy the report!
This data breakdown was possible thanks to Sorare Tools.
We just linked up and they were able to help out with the data! They’ve also hooked us up with a Promo Code for 20% off (below).
Sorare Tools is a portfolio tracker but also a solid tax tool for all your Sorare transactions. It integrates with ZenLedger, Koinly, and CoinTracking.
20% Off Promo Code: THEFIRSTMINT20
⚙️ How Sorare Works
Skip ahead if you already know thi spart
Sorare recently hit the 50,000 Unique Monthly Buyer count, a huge marker of growth (albeit tiny in the world of big tech).
Their system is designed as a Daily Fantasy Platform, but where users own the cards of the players they are submitting for contests.
Auction Sales: Most of the supply on Sorare is released via Auction (not “Packs”). You bid on the players you want at different tiers of scarcity. The auctions run 24/7, and Sorare controls their frequency to manage overall supply.
Manager Sales: Users can “sell” their NFTs on the secondary Marketplace. A card can be re-sold an infinite amount of times. And anyone can place an offer on any card.
Ethereum Payments: All sales are in Ethereum, although the site displays the EURO as its currency. You basically load ETH into your Sorare wallet, and spend it as Euros.
Card Utility: All cards can be used in weekly contests that are very similar to Daily Fantasy Sports. Submit the players you have and hope you score the most points.
Rewards: The Soccer side of Sorare rewards with ETH, but NBA and MLB only reward in more cards. Typically the top 5-20% of any contest are winners.
Tiers: If you want to spend big and win big, you can. Sorare cards have different Scarcity Tiers. If you want to enter a “rare” contest, you need “rare” cards. Simple.
Alright enough primer. Here’s the data.
🏀 The NBA on Sorare: Data
The NBA launched on Sorare in October 2022, and has since done over $28M in volume across Auctions and Manager Sales.
I’m not sure what the expectations were for the first season, but that’s not bad for a bear market launch!
They have a healthy secondary: 48% of sales come from Managers exchanging with each other.
The Auctions are still somewhat healthy on NBA Sorare, as the Giannis Antetokounmpo 1/1 Unique Card just sold for over $180k.
However, its natural for there to be a decline as the season goes on and as Sorare winds the auctions down artificially. There are FEWER cards being released now than in October, when supply was first seeded.
⚾ The MLB on Sorare: Data
The MLB launched on Sorare in late July, at the 2/3 mark of the MLB Season.
And as a result, there was very little fanfare or marketing for the product, especially compared to its NBA counterpart.
So naturally, the NBA’s volume is quite different than Soccer or even the NBA, as it sits just below $7.5M since launch.
The worst part of the numbers it the low secondary.
Only 25% of sales have come from Managers, as the platform seeded with supply in the Summer but did not gain much traction in the MLB Playoffs.
However, all hope is not lost for the MLB.
The reality for sports is that fan interest peaks at the start of every season, and trails off afterwards with a small bump at playoff time.
So you could look at $7.5M in volume optimistically: that there was that much appetite for MLB Sorare at the typically slow end-of-season!
Opening Day is in 42 days, and I’ve been going hard on the market for MLB (more on that in an upcoming newsletter). Let’s hope my bet pays off and they go big on the new season!
⚽ Soccer on Sorare: Data
I’ll tell you right now, I am not the biggest Soccer fan.
To the point where I won’t even call it Football for the purpose of this article, despite Sorare’s European roots and the sport absolutely dominating the platform.
Sorare launched way back in 2019 with Soccer as its core product, and has racked up an unbelievable amount of sales ever since - $817 million lifetime!
And even better: 67% of that has come from Manager Sales on the secondary market.
That’s a staggering amount spent on NFTs, but actually makes total sense when you realize that winners are rewarded in ETH on the Soccer tournaments.
However, despite the launch of the English Premier League just weeks ago (they didn’t have the license until this year), volume for this year is nowhere close to the pace it was on in 2022.
We are 12.6% of the way into the year, but secondary volume has only hit 6.4% of last year’s total. That’s a steep drop!
Looking at it in the same short term lens as MLB and NBA, Soccer is still quite dominant but has seen a drop off in recent months - with no noticeable bump for the World Cup (November 22 - December 20) and only a smidge for EPL.
🏟️ Sorare Sports: All of them together
It’s very very hard to compare sports here. They are apples to oranges.
Soccer has been around for four years
MLB launched in July, deep into the season and with little marketing
NBA launched in October with tons of marketing
For the purpose of this article, and knowing its not perfect, I’ve compared the data from July 2022 to February 2023 to give an 8-month snapshot of the platform.
It’s natural here for Auctions to outweigh Manager Sales for the NBA and MLB - after all, both of them launched all of their supply in this timeframe.
The question going forward: will Manager Sales on NBA/MLB one day completely outweigh the Auctions, similar to Soccer?
Maybe. But for the time being, it’s a Sorare Soccer world, and the other sports are just living in it - as proven by this chart we published last night, showing individual buyers of each top sports NFT collection.
Total Unique Buyers on all other platforms combined doesn’t even come close to the total Unique Buyers on Sorare Soccer.
A big potential caveat though: on Sorare, you do not need to KYC, meaning you one could hypothetically play with multiple accounts. As opposed to Dappers Labs (Top Shot, All Day, Strike, La Liga), where users must prove their identity to use the platform (or at least cash out).
📊 Next Data Pull
I’ll admit, this data is somewhat incomplete. We’re missing some key points, and it only covers Sorare (and not the other projects).
Next time around, I’d like to include:
Top Auction Sales all-time
Top Manager Sales all-time
Volume by Tier (Limited, Rare, SuperRare, Unique)
Hopefully we can dive back in this Summer, once the MLB has launched and the majority of Soccer leagues are in full swing.
Until then, thanks for reading!
This newsletter is brought to you by Bleacher Report, Watch to Earn.
Watch. Play. Earn. Redeem.
It’s that simple in the newest game from Bleacher Report!
During NBA on TNT, test your trivia knowledge and for every correct answer you can earn B/R Tokens which may unlock future access to limited quantities of real-world and digital assets, which are planned to be made available via an online marketplace!
The project features:
Live Trivia during NBA on TNT
Earn extra B/R Tokens in Discord
Use your B/R Tokens to redeem prizes
Terms Apply. See brw2e.com for details.
**This is not financial advice. Nothing in this newsletter, podcast, or publication should be considered financial or trading advice of any kind. Please do your own thorough research and make your own trading decisions. This is not advice.”
About The First Mint
A web3 sports community. Podcasts. Newsletters. Events.
Tweets and Newsletters are not endorsements.
Excellent post Ser! Keep 'em coming.