2019-2024 Long
Sorare
Sorare is a fantasy football game based on the Ethereum blockchain. The game involves collecting NFT cards to participate in bi-weekly fantasy football competitions with the goal of winning rewards.
Introduction
Growth
When I joined in 2019, we were a team of four. At its peak growth, Sorare had 200 employees across two offices, in Paris and New York.
Sorare went through a pre-seed round in 2019, a seed round in 2020, a Series A in 2021, and a Series B at the end of 2021, which valued the startup at $4.3 billion. It was also the largest fundraising in French Tech history, raising $680 million while the team was just 15 people.
At the start, only the Belgian football league was available. By 2024, Sorare had expanded to 320 clubs, as well as MLB and NBA.
Between 2019 and 2024, the number of weekly active users reached 179,000, a 20,000% increase.
My Role
My journey began in 2019 when I joined Sorare as the first designer and the second employee after the pre-seed round. My time at Sorare lasted over four and a half years. I led the development of the Football game, continuously improving it to enhance retention and conversion metrics.
I also established the core branding elements, including the logo, cards, and the first communication materials.
Later, I scaled the design system to ensure consistency across Sorare's different products.
The Design Team
The first designers to help structure the team were:
2020 – Philip de Canaga in Brand and Motion Design (now Creative Lead)
2022 – Dac Davy Nguyen in Product Design
2022 – Anna Personne in Brand
Later, we were joined by Dan Sormaz and Cooper Smith, who contributed to the expansion of the team in the U.S. At its peak, the design team had about 20 members, working across three products, with expertise in Brand, Motion, Graphic Production, Product Design, Film, and Management.
Foundations and Product Loop
I helped create the game alongside the founding team, bringing Sorare's concept to life. The product is built on three key pillars that form its core loop: the Marketplace, the Fantasy Game, and Rewards. This core loop has remained unchanged and was later adapted for the MLB and NBA games.
Branding
My first tasks focused on the core branding elements, including the logo and the cards. Later, this work expanded to the foundations of the design system.
Logo
The "Startball" is built from a circle and five ovals, tilted to create a sense of motion. It was inspired by the Champions League logo.
The Cards
These are NFTs that can be bought, sold, won, or traded. They come in different rarity levels, with limited quantities each season. The card system was designed to be automated, allowing for the rapid generation of large volumes of cards. Each season, the cards change. I had the opportunity to design multiple generations of cards before passing the torch.
They are divided into three layers: the textual content, the player's image, and the background.
Product Design - Market
To illustrate product design, I will focus on the most recent iterations I contributed to. I will stick to the core loop and highlight a few projects I find interesting.
Market
The marketplace is structured into two parts: real-time auctions for official sales conducted by Sorare, and a space dedicated to transactions and exchanges between managers. Each card has a dedicated page that provides both player performance information and the blockchain properties of the card.
My Sorare
This is an extension of the marketplace that allows managers to track their bids, purchases, sales, and manage negotiations for potential trades with other managers.
Gameplay - Fantasy Game
Lobby, Upcoming competitions
The first access point to the game is the lobby. It functions based on gameweeks, which include a set of competitions. gameweeks can be in different states: Upcoming, Live, or Past. By entering a competition, the user accesses its details. Rewards are highlighted first, followed by the rules, ensuring clear and intuitive navigation.
Each gameweek, the manager's goal is to assemble the most competitive teams to score the most points and win rewards.
A competition has four variations based on the rarity of the cards owned. The rarer the cards, the higher the prize pool.
Compose team
By signing up for a competition, the manager accesses the "Compose Team" and selects their team of 5 players.
Designed as an immersive and interactive experience, it features rich data and micro-interactions.
Player detail panel
Captain selection
Rules and prize pool panels.
Lobby, Upcoming teams
Once the team is finalized and saved, the manager returns to the lobby, in the "My Teams" section.
The design aims to provide an overview of the teams composed with a “team component” that evolves based on the states of the lobby.
Lobby, Live teams
When the gameweek starts, it switches to Live status, which lasts for a 3 to 4-day cycle. The selected footballers play their matches and are scored.
The team component was designed to evolve dynamically, providing real-time information.
Compose Team, Live Team
Compose Team is also available in a live version to track the ranking and possible rewards.
The experience is focused on the score. The leaderboard and prize pool replace the sidebar.
Gameweek Finished
Once completed, the gameweek moves to the Past phase, where all scores and rankings are finalized. The manager then receives their final ranking along with any rewards earned. These rewards can include cards, money, or various goodies.
Extra projects
Onboarding
The latest iteration, developed with Dac Davy, features a draft system that allows new managers to experience the full game loop for free.
The draft is a simplified version of the marketplace: the manager signs up, selects a competition, and chooses 8 free cards within a budget constraint.
World Cup 2022
We designed the first version of the draft onboarding during the 2022 World Cup. It was a completely free game, played by 800,000 users.
Team View
The team view allows the manager to access match details. It provides an overview of the team's performance and helps scout new players.
Collection Game
Managers collect cards in albums by team, season, and rarity. Owning more cards in an album boosts their power in the Fantasy Game.
The collection design repurposes components from the marketplace.
Navigation & Design system
In 2023, I had the opportunity to completely rethink Sorare's navigation. I wireframed and prototyped the entire product to simplify the experience, reorganize the different sections of the site, and eliminate obsolete parts.
This project also led to a redesign and simplification of the entire design system.
The main navigation is now located on the left side in the desktop version.
Photodump
Many thanks to the team for this thrilling experience, we all grew so much! I'm so proud of what we accomplished.
