Russian Premier League football champions Zenit St. Petersburg are the latest high-profile club to enter the world of blockchain games.
Zenit St. Petersburg, the main football club of the Russian Premier League, has joined the Sorare fantasy football platform, based on the Ethereum blockchain.
From October 15, Zenit players will be launched as collectible and interchangeable digital cards within the blockchain-based game, joining 100 other international football clubs, including Juventus, PSG, Atletico Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.
The players‘ Blockchain cards can be exchanged with other managers, and players can play the games as soon as they have a minimum of five digital cards. The score on each player card is linked to their real-life performance on the football league tables.
Sorare CEO Nicolas Julia says the platform aims to create a global fantasy blockchain football game that includes the top 10 leagues in the world.
Since its launch in March 2019, Sorare has grown by an average of 52% month on month and today has 40,000 users worldwide. Interestingly, Russia has grown to become Sorare’s third largest scoreboard worldwide, witnessing a 70% increase in users month over month. The country also ranks first in terms of average daily time spent on the gaming platform, at one hour and 15 minutes per day.
Zenit CEO Alexander Medvedev said he hoped the partnership with Sorare would give better coverage to the club’s brand and enable it to reach younger fans abroad, especially in Asia and the Americas.
Nonfungible – a rating site for blockchain games and creators of non-expendable collectibles – currently has Sorare in 4th place. It reports a seven-day volume of USD 181,353, compared to USD 445,545 for the top-ranked game, Superrare.