It’s been a minute since the last regular Issue of Daily landed in inboxes and there has been some news. Some big news; frankly massive. Club Universitario de Deportes has finally brought the Peruvian Primera División to Sorare! I know what you’re saying, why now? Why not never? And that is a fair question. Very few managers know anything about Peruvian football and even if you do you likely weren’t longing for Alejandro Hohberg cards even with his 13 goal, seven assist campaign for Universitario last term. (By the way, if you’re not a Hohberg stan and are looking for his card, sorry to report he’s moved to Sporting Cristal where he’s kept pace with seven goals and four assists in 13 appearances including eight league starts. So, no cards, yet.)
It’s unfortunate Sorare didn’t use the last week to release a more prominent club with globally recognized players but maybe it’s because the don’t have the funding. Hold on, I’m getting an update.
Paris Scores Goals, sorry, Paris Saint-Germain (boring, seriously rebrand your club) landed just hours before the platform announced a $680M Series B round led by Softbank. $1,250,000 in NFT sales in the 24 hours after launching Messi, Mbappe and Neymar (and Hakimi, and Donnarumma, and Di Maria, and my guy Wijjy, and…) resulted in a 175% increase in day over day total volume and fell just short of the 406 ETH peak on February 28, 2021 but did surpass that on a 24hour continuum.
The announcement was interesting for other reasons including a number I’d not previously seen: registered users.
We now have over 180 clubs, 6000 licensed footballers, and 600,000 registered users and we’re only getting started.
That is a huge number and speaks to me on a few fronts. First, card ownership is a fraction of that number. Even after exponential growth across the last two week there are only 37,122 managers who own 1+ blockchain card. That is up from 26,289 one month ago, but still barely 6% of the claimed registered users which makes you wonder what it would take for the other 94% to get on board if the release of Limited scarcity didn’t do it. Any influx of new managers is going to increase competition for cards of all scarcities at all levels of SO5 utility.
We’ve seen a second massive influx of new card owners in the last 30 days. The days of being able to toss a minimum bid on a card and wait three days to win it for $0.65 cents look to be over. The top end cards also require significant investment as Messi’s Limited cards have demonstrated in the early days.
So will this drive prices or will the platform continue to grow that 180 clubs, 6,000 players. If they stay static, that is 6,000,000 Limited cards per year. Certainly more than enough for 32,000 users but even more than enough for 600,000 users given the relative inhibition 94% have already shown in joining the market.
The announcement, penned by Nicolas Julia, also listed three priorities for Sorare to “give back to the community” including this one which I believe will fundamentally shift the way Sorare is perceived and used across the globe.
3. Supporting female representation in sports: Women’s sports are underrepresented, underappreciated and undervalued. We believe that NFTs can significantly accelerate the development of women’s sports. We will actively invest in this by beginning with women’s football.
I was a little bit surprised that they still have not unveiled a partnership with a professional women’s league - either NWSL or FA WSL - before they announced the B round funding but I suppose money was there now and if that helps get the women in the front of the room, great.
Ok But Seriously, Sorare Peru?
I regret to inform you that, contrary to everything I’ve written above, Sorare has not yet made it.
My heart, it is broken. SorarePeru is also available on the platform itself.
Here’s the thing for me: I appreciate the desire to move into new markets, to expand the offerings and to seek out new life and new civilizations. And selecting this club for it’s history (and likely willingness to partner) and visibility makes a lot of sense. I will not be doing a scouting report because this team is objectively terrible for SO5.
Universitario finished 2nd in 2020. Their best player by a country mile left (the above touted Hohberg who led the club in goals (13) and assists (7) and was 6/7 from the penalty spot). Despite finishing second they allowed 35 goals in 28 matches (1.25 per match) and kept only eight clean sheets.
The data here is muddled. Sorare has Luis Urruti with an L5:47 (40%) and L15:45 (27%); SorareData has Luis Urruti with an L5:63 (100%) and L15:57 (60%). When I check with FBRef for his game logs and it is apparent that he’s played in the last five and scored twice.
If you skip through his top level information on Sorare and look at the scores under Description it’s pretty clear that his L5 is, in fact, not 47.
So I’m trusting SorareData more than the platform itself for the data, which is not ideal. And there isn’t enough value in here to parse all the pieces, to sift through each of the discrepancies to identify value because the best of the best in this club are still barely averaging better than average scores. The ROI is there, because the costs are so low, but it’s hard to buy into a league when you aren’t able to read regular coverage and have to learn the recent history whole cloth.
If you’re looking to buy here the best targets are currently injured Hernán Novick (calf) who has score eight goals with three assists in 15 starts. Or look to 25 year old Álex Valera who has pocketed a modest four goals with three assists across 18 appearances (15 starts). Both of those players are capable (when healthy) of posting 70+ points, albeit infrequently.
Fair Warning - Key Auctions Ending Soon
This was meant to have been published early on Tuesday but … gang aft a-gley. Damn the mice in the first place. So I’ve updated Fair Warning to cover evening US time which will be early morning CET. I’ve endeavored to recanvas the auctions to locate the key auctions for players which may also cover multiple cards in the coming days.
Bill Hamid - Limited 56/1000 2021-22
The 30 year old Hamid has been a mainstay in MLS for a decade. This season he’s been plagued by injuries and inconsistent performances, but still showed signs of the elite shot-stopper he’s always been. His contract ends after this season and we’ve been here before: prepare for months of speculation about Hamid finally leaving DC United. This is a short term play at a price point which isn’t that high (recent gavel’s around $103.02 0.035 ETH) with plenty of upside. Don’t forget that GK in MLS play into their mid 30s regularly. Hamid doesn’t have the best track record for playing 30+ matches but you’re getting a solid starter without breaking the bank.
Kiko Casilla - Limited 90/1000 2021-22
I’ve written enough about Casilla in the La Liga coverage so I felt compelled to point out that he’s available right now. Nothing will do a better job illustrating his boom/bust GK value than his last five SO5 scores: 67, 29, 43, 67, 59. At age 34 I don’t think there are many years left but $157.14 0.052 ETH for your starting Champion Europe D5 squad this year.
Tyrell Malacia - Rare 16/100 2021-22
The Feyenoord defender has been slowly building a resume. Now entering his fifth season as part of the first team, Malacia has made 64 league starts for the Dutch side, scoring three times with five assists. His recent scores have been exceptional with two 70+ point performances in the club’s most recent five. This is dampened by his two DNPs in that stretch. But the price is right and the upside is there. He also has a Limited card closing 4 hours prior to the Rare wiht the most recent Limited going under the gavel for $218.58 0.072 ETH.
Presnel Kimpembe - Limited 55/100 2021-22
Possibly lost in the overall hype of the Paris Saint-Germain release is that a handful of very good soccer players who simply are very good soccer players and not Global Brands also have cards. At the top of the list for me is Kimpembe. The 25 year old France defender has an L40:54 and a Limited price under 0.100. The 24 France caps should not be underestimate in terms of his SO5 value, especially after he posted scores of 53 and 80 during the last international break. The frequent appearances for France, and his usage in UCL, give him additional value. Kimpembe has a Rare closing around the same time as the Limited which will cost a bit more.