Sorare, an official partner of the Premier League, has been charged by the UK Gambling Commission with allegedly “providing unlicensed gambling facilities to consumers in Britain”.
The company will appear at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on October 4 to face the charge.
In January 2023, the Premier League announced a four-year license with Sorare “to release digital cards of players from all 20 Premier League clubs as part of its free-to-play online fantasy football game”. Sorare features on the Premier League’s official website as a partner.
Sorare is a game in which players buy in cryptocurrency, win and manage a virtual team of digital player cards (NFTs, or non-fungible tokens). Its website says users can “compete for more than $15,000,000 in total cash prizes, VIP tickets, signed jerseys and more”.
“Sorare’s digital cards and innovative online game represent a new way for them to feel closer to the Premier League whether they are watching in the stadium or from around the world,” Premier League chief executive Richard Masters commented when the Sorare deal was announced.
The Gambling Commission said in 2021 that it was investigating whether Sorare provided a gambling service and if it therefore needed a license to do so. The Premier League is not commenting following the Gambling Commission’s charge.
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Premier League side Liverpool have also previously been partnered with Sorare. The club posted about the partnership as recently as April, but they no longer have a relationship with the French company following the expiration of their deal in May.
Per its website, Sorare also has partnerships with MLS, the Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga, as well as the NBA and MLB.
Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe is also partnered with the firm and has posted advertisements for it on his social media platforms.
Sorare was founded in Paris in 2018 and claims to have three million users across 180 countries. It also lists former footballers Rio Ferdinand and Gerard Pique among its investors and partners.
“We are aware of the claims made by the Gambling Commission and have instructed our UK counsel to challenge them,” a Sorare spokesperson said. “We firmly deny any claims that Sorare is a gambling product under UK laws. The Commission has misunderstood our business and wrongly determined that gambling laws apply to Sorare. We cannot comment further whilst legal proceedings are underway.”
Additional reporting: Caoimhe O’Neil
(Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
