The move to investigate Sorare came after its most recent announcement of its partnerships with the Spanish LaLiga and the top two divisions of the German Bundesliga.
A statement from the UK Gambling Commission has indicated that the Paris-based NFT platform for trading football cards, Sorare, is currently being investigated regarding the nature of its services licensing.
According to the statement, the commission was not sure if the NFT company had the right licenses to operate or if its services could not be labeled as gambling.
“The Gambling Commission is currently carrying out enquiries into the company to establish whether Sorare.com requires an operating licence or whether the services it provides do not constitute gambling.”
From the above statement, one would deduce that the UK Gambling Commission is investigating Sorare to establish if the company needs a gambling license to continue operating as its services, per the commission, appear to constitute gambling in some form.
Following the Friday statement by the commission, Sorare responded that the company had sought legal clarity since the inception of the business. The company expressed confidence that its services do constitute gambling, and as such, it has not violated the rule.
The company’s spokesperson said:
“We will always engage and have an open dialogue with authorities who reach out to us to learn more about our game. We believe this is the responsible way to grow our game and community globally.”
On the Sorare platform, users can buy and sell officially licensed digital trading cards, which feature players from several soccer teams across the globe. Those digital cards are tokenized on the Ethereum blockchain. The tokens allow users to build a team to compete with other teams. Users earn prizes in Ethereum currency or Rare in-game player cards. The company has also been able to partner with several football clubs.
The move to investigate Sorare came after its most recent announcement of its partnerships with the Spanish LaLiga and the top two divisions of the German Bundesliga. This drove the company closer to its ambition of securing partnerships with 20 globally recognized football leagues.
Sorare popularity is tied to NFT and sports, and that has grown much higher in recent months. The platform recently raised a whopping $680 million in a Series B funding round.
In the comment of Max Heinemeyer, Director of Threat Hunting at Darktrace, warning that security remains a major concern.
“While NFTs are easy to purchase, they are notoriously complex to secure,” he said adding that “Individual investors may not understand the risk or how to secure NFT football cards properly, which is something cybercriminals will take advantage of.”
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