Sports NFT platforms have racked up nearly $1 billion in funding this week alone, despite market slump

• Sorare raised $680 million yesterday in a Series B funding round.
• Dapper Labs also raised $250 million, which will be used to expand the NBA Top Shots platform.
• Sorare and Dapper Labs both plan to expand their existing marketplaces using their respective funds.

Sports-themed non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are continuing to rake in the big bucks despite the current slump in the market — not with traders, but with big wig investors. Between Dapper Labs and Sorare, nearly a $1 billion has been raised this week alone.

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Yesterday, French NFT trading card game platform Sorare raised $680 million, alongside popular basketball collectibles platform Dapper Labs, which raised $250 million.

While Sorare and Dapper Labs have obviously made the news, sports-based NFT platforms are coming up elsewhere too. In India, five-month old Cricket Foundation announced a platform called CricketCrazy.io, which is dedicated to NFTs themed on the sport. The platform didn’t reveal investments, but said that blockchain platform Zebi is amongst its investors.

Another platform called Rario, which deals in collectibles in India, had also announced an NFT marketplace dedicated to cricket last month. The Economic Times reported that transactions worth over $2.5 billion are expected in the digital collectibles space, at the time, which was before the current slump we’re seeing in the NFT space overall right now.

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Sorare and Dappe Labs expand
While the Indian platforms are just starting off, Sorare and Dapper Labs are expanding operations. Yesterday’s funding was part of a Series B round for Sorare and it was led by one of the biggest tech funders in the world today — Softbank.

Cointelegraph reported that Sorare plans to partner with the top 20 professional soccer leagues in the world, and 50 international football associations. NFTs will be minted for both men’s and women’s teams.

On the other hand, Dapper Labs said its funding will be used to license NFT projects across sports, music and entertainment. The platform will scale up its NBA Top Shot platform, which has already seen over $10 million worth of transactions, according to Dapper’s website. NBA Top Shots ranks at number 19 in blockchain tracking platform DAppsRadar’s rankings for the top NFT platforms in the world.

Issues may arise
But despite these funding rounds, investors may want to take cognizance of the fact that the NFT space still needs regulation, not just from governments but also the platforms themselves. Earlier today, Cointelegraph reported that NBA star John Wall had been accused of ripping off artwork from popular battle royale game Fortnite.

As we reported earlier, the NFT space has also seen instances of insider trading, frauds and more. On September 15, the world’s largest NFT marketplace OpenSea admitted that one of its senior employees had been involved in a case of insider trading. “This is incredibly disappointing. We want to be clear that this behavior does not represent our values as a team,” OpenSea said in a statement.

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