Ronaldo Gets Ethereum Token as Juventus Tokenizes Players

Italian football club Juventus is launching digital collectibles of players, starting with Cristiano Ronaldo, in partnership with blockchain-enabled fantasy football startup Sorare.

The deal will enable Juventus to offer digitally collectible cards, which will be joining the likes of Roma, Napoli, and West Ham as Sorare’s partners.

Juventus, a leading Italian football team, will now be offering blockchain-based digital collectible cards of its players. The team announced its partnership with Sorare, a French blockchain fantasy football gaming company founded in 2018, saying that the first collectible card to be offered will be of its star forward, Cristiano Ronaldo.

“We are very proud to have signed this agreement with such an Italian heavyweight,” said Sorare CEO Nicolas Julia. “We see this as a new key step in our vision to onboard the best soccer clubs from around the world and bring blockchain-gaming to football fans around the world.”

All of the cards issued on the Sorare platforms will represent non-fungible tokens (NFTs) based on Ethereum’s ERC-721 standard, Yahoo Finance reported. The platform will divide the cards into three categories—unique, super rare, and rare. There will only be 1 “unique” card per player, while the other two categories will see 10 and 100 cards issued, respectively.

Internationally acclaimed football clubs are taking advantage of the growing demand for NFTs. Blockchains are an ideal solution for creating traceable and tradable digital assets, with companies like CryptoKitties and Gods Unchained paving the way for other entrants. At the moment, the segment is dominated by Ethereum.

Players on Sorare can then use those cards to comprise five-player teams and compete in leagues. Users can also trade cards on the secondary market, the company said.

I'm proud of being the lucky owner of the first @Cristiano card! #CristianoRonaldo #Juventus @SorareHQ pic.twitter.com/tuZy7AY8xi

— kittypad