Liverpool Football Club is set to strengthen links with the world of crypto by developing a partnership with blockchain-based sports start-up, Sorare, according to a company statement.

The French firm announced it had an exclusive multi-year partnership with Liverpool Football Club to create fan experiences and content. Sorare’s online fantasy sports game includes the sale of licensed digital sports cards which can be utilised by players to build teams and compete against one another, Reuters news agency reports.

The sports cards for the game are purchased and traded in the form of NFTs (non-fungible tokens). NFTs are unique digital assets designed to represent ownership of a virtual item, such as artwork, music, a video clip, or tokenised tweet, amongst other representations.
 
Last year, Liverpool cards were launched on the platform and the new deal will see incentives such as visits to the stadium, match day experiences, video content and merchandise offered as prizes for the winners of the online game, Sorare stated.

Last month, the average sale price of a Sorare NFT stood at $86.14, a reduction from a high of around $280 in March last year, according to market tracker CryptoSlam.

However, the UK’s gambling watchdog is looking into Sorare to determine whether the game constitutes gambling. A Sorare spokesperson said this was “not relevant” to the association with Liverpool.

“Sorare remains very confident it does not offer any forms of gambling, and this has been confirmed by expert legal opinions at every stage since the company was founded, including when signing new partnerships,” the company spokesperson said.

Sorare has more than 2 million users across the globe and has partnerships with over 280 million sports organisations, including Major League Baseball in the U.S. and UK football clubs.