Premier League lines up £30m-a-year digital tokens deal with Sorare | Business News
English football’s top flight is preparing a £30 million-a-year deal to sell digital tokens to fans after talks with a rival supplier collapsed.
Sky News has learned that the Premier League will hold talks with 20 of their clubs to discuss a proposed multi-year deal with Sorare, a Paris-based startup.
The deal, which is understood to focus on still images of players such as Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, could be formally agreed within weeks.
A call is understood to have been convened on Friday with top clubs to discuss the proposal.
Tech industry sources say they will replace an agreement with ConsenSys that is due to be signed earlier this year.
ConsenSys have attempted to renegotiate a deal for a lower price after NFT valuations slipped, but a Premier League club executive said they have been told the Sorare deal is more lucrative than the previous one. with the proposed modification of ConsenSys.
The deal with Sorare is to offer a so-called non-fungible token (NFT), a fast-growing but volatile asset class that allows fans to ‘own’ images of artwork or Famous sports highlights.
Sorare is backed by French soccer player Kylian Mbappe as well as Japanese tech giant SoftBank, and was valued at more than $4 billion in a fundraiser last year.
A separate deal between the Premier League and Dapper Labs, another specialist in the NFT market, is also under discussion.
The Premier League declined to comment, while Sorare did not respond to an email inquiry.