It’s been a funny few months for football gambling platforms. SportStack suddenly closed at the end of last year, Football Index self-combusted in early March, quickly followed by Footstock. FiveYards has thrown in the towel as well now, under pressure from the Gambling Commission (who are seemingly over-compensating for their lack of action on Football Index). Most of the things I put my time, energy and money into have just disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Not everything though. FanTeam is ticking along nicely for a bit of fantasy fun and Sorare continues to go from strength to strength as the leading football NFT platform in the world, blending trading and collecting with a global fantasy football game.

Sorare functions as a gateway into understanding the world of NFTs: non-fungible tokens. 2021 seems to be the year of the NFT – it’s everywhere you look right now – and the NFT bug has bitten me too.

Outside of Sorare, my first purchase was a Gutter Cat. I bought into the Gutter Cat Gang simply because I liked the art, likewise the Cool Cats which I made my next NFT purchase. Both have been really successful projects and have made me look deeper into the NFT world to see what else might be out there, either to hold for the art and community connection, or to flip for a profit.

The similarities between NFTs and alt-betting platforms like Football Index aren’t lost on me. There’s a gamble there which is really attractive to people (especially projects with blind mints) and that lovely balance of risk versus reward, where you feel you can tip the scales slightly in your favour with a bit of research.

Like alt-betting, this feels like a moment where boundaries are being broken and that we are all early adopters in this space. It feels exciting to be in on something right from the start and to be learning about something completely new.

There’s also the community element of course, which has so far been a really positive experience for me – and is generally very welcoming of crypto newbies.

As you can probably tell, this has all really piqued my interest and I’ve suddenly found myself with about 20 different NFT Discord channels on the go, falling further and further down the rabbit hole! As I delve deeper into this world, I want to share what I find with you – which will be a bit of a pivot from what I have been doing, hence this blog giving you time to unsubscribe/unfollow if it’s not for you!

The Sorare content will continue of course and perhaps if any other football platforms reappear I might take a look at those too – particularly those with an NFT element to them. Otherwise this will morph into more of an NFT-focused blog, with some football on the side. The style of content will remain the same – overviewing the nuts and bolts of things to help me (and maybe you) to weigh up the risks and decide if a gamble is worth taking.

So there we are, that’s the pivot. The end of one chapter, the start of a new one.