Sorare, the global sports entertainment company, has signed a four-year licensing partnership with the Premier League.

The agreement will allow Sorare to release digital cards of players from all 20 Premier League clubs as part of its free-to-play online fantasy football game and will provide fans with another way to connect with their favourite clubs and players.

Just like a team manager, Premier League fans can now buy, sell, collect, and build teams with officially licensed digital player cards, and compete with their teams in Sorare’s free fantasy football game for rewards. To mark the new partnership, Sorare has also launched exciting new gameplay features including league-specific competitions, draft-based gameplay, and capped-mode competitions.

The Premier League is the world’s most watched football competition with a long history of entertaining sports audiences within the UK and internationally. Premier League games are broadcast to 880 million households in 188 countries, with 90 broadcasters and more than 400 channels showing games. The Premier League and its clubs count almost a billion followers on social media.

With more than three million users worldwide, Sorare is one of the world’s most popular online sports games and offers the Premier League another way to engage with its supporters.

Sorare has experienced incredible demand and hypergrowth since its launch in 2018, partnering with over 300 sports organisations to launch cards of their players, including Spain’s LaLiga, Germany’s Bundesliga, and Italy’s Serie A. In 2022, it also expanded into two new sports – baseball and basketball – by partnering with the NBA and MLB and this latest partnership is a major milestone for the company. Sorare also has athletes Serena Williams, Lionel Messi, Zinedine Zidane, Rio Ferdinand, Antoine Griezmann, Gerard Piqué, Blake Griffin, and Rudy Gobert among its investors, ambassadors, and advisors.

Richard Masters, Chief Executive of the Premier League, said: “The way that supporters follow their favourite teams and players is evolving and the Premier League is always looking for ways to engage with fans. 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. We believe that Sorare are the ideal partner for the Premier League and we look forward to working closely together.”

Nicolas Julia, CEO and co-founder of Sorare, said: “The Premier League is a truly global competition and has been the home to so many iconic moments and players over the last 30 years. As football fans ourselves, this partnership is something we’ve dreamt of since we founded the business. It’s a major milestone for us as we pursue our goal to build a compelling global sports community for fans and we’re extremely proud to have now partnered with three of the biggest sports leagues in the world: the Premier League, NBA and MLB. We’re incredibly excited and can’t wait to see fans play with Premier League cards in our tournaments.”

Low6, the award-winning global leader in sports gamification, has launched a game with Sportsbet, part of Flutter Entertainment plc and the market leader in online sports betting across Australia, for the World Cup.

Super Fantasy Soccer, which has launched as the partnership’s first game, is a spin-off of the hugely successful UltimateFan franchise. Within 36 hours of its release it has already topped the charts becoming No.1 Top Free Apps in Sports on the App Store in Australia.

The innovative whitelabel game issues and rewards players with  ‘packdrops’ which reveal athletes and team cards to create lineups for each World Cup contest. With points being earned from the real-life performances, players compete on a global leaderboard to win a $50,000 prizepool every gameweek as well as the ability to create and join Invitational Leagues to compete against their friends, family and colleagues. Sportsbet’s live odds are also integrated into the gameplay to further enhance the experience.

UltimateFan has already proved to be a huge hit for Low6 with over 200,000 Installs for the game to date. Launched initially for the Euro 2020 soccer tournament, within weeks of the English Premier League season starting it had become the Number One Top Grossing Sports App in the UK and the No.2 Most Downloaded UK Sports App. With franchised games for the NFL Cincinnati Bengals, Jacksonville Jaguars and LA Chargers, it scooped “Fantasy Product” and “Innovation of the Year” at the EGR Awards as well as Low6 being recognised as “B2B Fantasy & DFS Supplier” at the EGR B2B Awards 2022.

Jamie Mitchell, Low6 CEO comments “We’re very proud to be working with Sportsbet and excited to help them continue to grow their market-leading position in Australia with innovative gamification. Given the success of UltimateFan, we’re confident that our leading sports products will acquire new Sportsbet users on mass as well as increasing daily active users throughout the World Cup and beyond.”

Successful igaming technology specialist back for new competition boosted by Media campaign

Fast-growing igaming technology business Checkd Dev has enhanced the free-to-play Sky Sports Fantasy Football (SSFF) game to incorporate the 2022 World Cup.

The SSFF platform, which includes integrated customer management elements from Sky Betting & Gaming, will be available to play through native iOS and Android apps and the SSFF website during the tournament in Qatar. It follows an ongoing campaign providing the domestic Premier League competition app and platform to Sky Sports.

In addition, Checkd Media is back in its role as a promotional partner ahead of the World Cup. The campaign will focus on the chance for players who missed out on selecting the likes of Premier League top scorer Erling Haaland to gain a second chance at glory during the World Cup.

The extension of the Media relationship follows a campaign that achieved over 18 million impressions and 1.5 million views during 2021-22, before Checkd Media was re-selected to drive awareness ahead of the current Premier League season.

Checkd Dev’s production of a fully rebuilt, future-proofed app and web-based platform for the game was bolstered by an outstanding and unrivalled stability record during 2021-22, with SSFF experiencing no downtime across the whole season.

The World Cup project is the latest of several high-profile media alliances for the tech development arm of Checkd Group.

Adam Patton, Checkd Dev MD, said: “The World Cup is the pinnacle of the global game and it’s fantastic to have been presented with the opportunity to create a Sky Sports Fantasy Football game that incorporates it. The news follows on from our creation of a platform last season that not only contained improved functionality but also a great deal of stability.

“Sky Sports Fantasy Football is a sophisticated and popular game that fans love and it’s a major boost for the Checkd Group to be the key delivery partner once again following a similarly successful second season in 2022-23, in which we once again leveraged our highly engaged social audiences.”

Luke Lockwood, Sky Bet Senior Product Manager, said: “Sky Sports Fantasy Football is a hugely popular game and it is vital that we utilise a platform that provides stability as well as enhanced features for our players. We believe Checkd Dev will deliver a World Cup contest that delivers the goods across mobile and desktop platforms, while as our promotional partners Checkd Media will make plenty of noise around the game to help drive sign-ups.”

Will Tyrrell, Director of UK Media at Checkd Media, said: “It has been fantastic to see Sky Sports Fantasy Football engage so well with our communities once again this season following the promotion of the competition through our popular channels. We look forward to putting together a similarly entertaining and engaging campaign around the World Cup game to capture the imagination of our audience.”