Nicolas Julia: Sorare – Marrying Fantasy Sports and NFTs

Sorare is a blockchain sports game which bridges fantasy football and NFT collectibles. A player collects a team of players in the form of NFTs and based on the performance of the players in the real world, scores points. At the end of the tournament, the Sorare participant is ranked and earns rewards.

Nicolas Julia, Co-founder & CEO of Sorare, created the game in 2018, way before the NFT craze of 2021. He joined us to chat about fantasy sports and what convinced him of NFTs, working in the football industry and the impact of licenses, and the regulatory push backs they have faced as a company.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Nicolas' background and how he got to into the crypto space
• How Nicolas got into NFTs in 2018
• An overview of fantasy sports and Sorare
• Why did Sorare choose to work with licenses and how they work
• The challenges of working in the football industry
• Sorare as a Web3 product
• The size and value of the Sorare community
• Regulatory push backs against Sorare
• The motivations behind the numerous platform transitions
• The biggest entrepreneurial lessons Nicolas took away from his time at Stratumn and his vision for Sorare

Episode links:

• Sorare website
• Sorare Community
• Discord
• Sorare on Twitter
• Nicolas on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Gnosis Safe: Gnosis Safe is a smart wallet for securely managing digital assets and allows you to define customized access permissions. - https://epicenter.rocks/gnosissafe

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/420