Sorare is a fantasy sports game where the player cards are NFTs. You pick lineups from cards of real footballers, basketball players or baseball players, and your score each Game Week comes from how those athletes actually perform. You can start with free cards, but the competitions with cash and card prizes need paid ones. This guide covers how it works in the 2026/27 season in five steps, and when it makes sense to spend money.
Risk note: Sorare cards are tradable digital assets with prices that can fall sharply, and paid competitions with prizes are treated as close to gambling by some regulators. You must be 18 or over. Nothing here is financial advice.
Sorare in short
| Made by | Sorare, a Paris company founded by Nicolas Julia and Adrien Montfort; the game came out in 2019 |
| Sports | Football, basketball (NBA) and baseball (MLB) |
| Platforms | Web, iOS and Android |
| Blockchain | Cards on Solana since October 2025, ETH balances on Base |
| Scoring data | Real match statistics from providers such as Opta |
| Cost to start | Free |
Company, sports, licences and blockchain history come from the Wikipedia article on Sorare, which cites the company’s announcements and press coverage.
1. Understand what a card is
Every Sorare card represents one real player for one season. The scarcer the card, the more it usually costs and the bigger the competitions it unlocks. For football there are five levels, each with a fixed print run per player and season:
| Rarity | Colour | Copies per player and season |
|---|---|---|
| Common | Grey | Free, not limited |
| Limited | Yellow | 1,000 |
| Rare | Red | 100 |
| Super Rare | Blue | 10 |
| Unique | Black | 1 |
When we visited the Sorare Tactics beginner guide on 22 October 2026, it listed these print runs. Only the four paid levels are NFTs that you can trade.
Cards also split into In-Season and Classic. An In-Season card is from the current season and is the one that matters for most prize competitions. Classic cards are from older seasons and still play, but in a separate set of competitions.
2. Sign up and play the free modes
Registration is free, and new accounts get a starter offer whose content changes over time. From there you play with Common cards. In the 2025/26 season the free path was the Sorare Set, where you opened a daily free pack, built five-card lineups and earned in-game rewards from missions.
For 2026/27 Sorare reorganised the game under the name Sorare 27, which started with the new European season in July 2026. The casual mode is now called Arcade, and fan site Sorare GOAT describes it as the entry point that teaches lineups, scoring and the football weekend. There is also Rivals, a mobile mode where you build a team from the two sides playing a single real match.
Play free for at least a few Game Weeks. You will learn more about how scoring works from three weeks of lineups than from any guide, including this one.
3. Learn how scoring and Game Weeks work
Each player earns a score from 0 to 100 based on real stats in his matches. Your lineup score is the sum of your players, plus a bonus for your captain and other bonuses tied to card level, season and collection.
There are two Game Weeks every week for football. Arena lineups are due on Tuesday and Friday at 16:00 CET, and rewards are paid out on Tuesday and Friday evenings. In-Season lineups have five players; Classic has a seven-player format called SO7.
Sorare 27 added two optional substitutes, one goalkeeper and one outfield player, who come in automatically only if a starter does not play. The catch is that if a substitute is used, you lose lineup bonuses such as the Multi-Club bonus. Basketball and baseball run on their own calendars, following the NBA and MLB schedules.
4. Pick a mode before you buy cards
Sorare 27 groups competitions into three areas, according to Sorare GOAT’s summary of the changes:
- Arcade, the casual mode for learning the game.
- Pro, which replaced Hot Streaks. You chase score targets set by Sorare, with four attempts per step, and clear steps to unlock rewards. Rare In-Season cards add 15% each, and a full Rare lineup can double the reward.
- Arena, the head-to-head side, with In-Season Arenas, Classic Arenas and Arena Rooms, which you enter with Essence, the in-game crafting resource.
Pro and In-Season Arenas need at least four In-Season cards in your lineup. That rule is why buying a pile of cheap Classic cards is a common beginner mistake: they look like a bargain, but they do not get you into the competitions most people want to play.
5. Set a budget, and know the legal picture
If you do decide to pay, Limited cards are the usual first step. When we visited the Sorare Tactics guide, it suggested £20 to £50 as a starting budget and said many Limited cards cost a few pounds. Prices move every Game Week, so check a player’s price history before buying, and remember that a card for a player who gets injured or transferred can lose most of its value in days.
The legal side matters more than with most games. In the UK, the Gambling Commission charged Sorare on 26 September 2024, the first prosecution of this kind against a major NFT platform, and the case was still open as of March 2026. Sorare responded with stricter identity checks for over-18s, clearer risk warnings and self-exclusion tools. In France, a 2026 decree launched a three-year trial period for games with tradable digital items, during which the regulator watches for risky behaviour.
None of this means you will lose your cards. It does mean the rules around cash prizes could change depending on where you live, so read the terms for your country before you deposit.
What changed on the blockchain side
Sorare started on Ethereum, moved most activity to StarkEx, a layer 2 network, in July 2021, and then went multichain in October 2025. Cards were moved to Solana, and ETH balances went to Base, the Ethereum layer 2 incubated by Coinbase. The wallet stays non-custodial, with both addresses coming from the same private key.
For most players this is invisible. It matters only if you want to move cards or funds outside Sorare, in which case you need to know which network each one is on.
Who Sorare is for
It suits people who already follow a league closely and enjoy fantasy sports. Knowing which players start, who takes penalties and which teams have an easy run of fixtures is most of the game, and that knowledge carries over directly.
It is a poor fit if you want a quick profit or do not watch much sport. The paid tiers reward hours of research every week, and the people who win prizes are usually up against managers who do exactly that.
Our advice: play Arcade for a month, then decide whether to buy a handful of Limited In-Season cards for one league you know well. If you would rather try a blockchain game that does not depend on real-world results, Gods Unchained and Splinterlands are free to start, and our list of the best NFT games covers more options.
