Both partners are leveraging Sorare’s blockchain technology in an innovative partnership
Today, the Belgian Pro League announces an innovative collaboration with Ubisoft’s Strategic Innovation Lab and its existing Pro League partner Sorare, the global fantasy football game where players collect, buy, sell and manage a virtual team with digital player cards, for the launch of the beta version of One Shot League. With this collaboration, parties are looking for new innovative ways to engage with fans worldwide and this first phase will be the opportunity to welcome players’ feedback in order to create the best possible experience.
One Shot League will be a highly competitive free-to-play fantasy football game in which players form a 5-player team from a previously selected deck of cards of Jupiler Pro League football players. With a new team selected for each matchday, they will compete with the entire community for the top of the leaderboard.
One Shot League requires players to use their best tactical skills and insights as each card can only be used once during the championship. The key to success therefore lies in monitoring the actual individual performances – indexed on the official Jupiler Pro League stats from STATSPerform by Opta, market leader in sports data analytics – and studying the statistics of their players to make the right decisions and discover future talents.
“Innovation is an integral part of our DNA, which is why we are always looking for new experiences that allows our fans to live their passion to the fullest. We notably launched the Pro League Forward initiative earlier this year, bringing together the best tech companies to find new innovative ways to share the passion of football with our fans.” says Pro League’s CEO, Pierre Francois. “We were the first football league to embrace Sorare’s technology in 2018 and we are now extremely excited about adding Ubisoft to the party”
In addition to its original game design, One Shot League offers winners of each match day limited edition official Sorare trading cards, another fantasy football platform. These football player cards, shared and usable in both games, will accelerate the player’s progress in One Shot League.
The main technological innovation of the game is the use of blockchain which allows players to be the true owners of the cards they collected and thus to use them in One Shot League as in Sorare. In addition to granting greater freedom to the player, this technology also makes it possible to establish the scarcity of digital cards and to exchange them on several dozen digital asset marketplaces.
Through this new experience that is One Shot League, Ubisoft’s Strategic Innovation Lab continues to explore the possibilities that blockchain can bring to gamers and to the future of video games. In particular, this project offers the opportunity to implement the concept of interoperability of game elements between different games without the usual barriers of blockchain for the general public (possession of a digital wallet, technical knowledge, etc.).
“With One Shot League, we’re showing how blockchain gives players more opportunities to play with their digital card collection,” said Nicolas Pouard, director of the Blockchain Initiative at Ubisoft. “Blockchain allows players to play with the same card in both fantasy football worlds today, but tomorrow it could allow them to enjoy it in a wide variety of games and environments, with different uses or rules – as a card, or as any sort of item”.
Based on the Jupiler Pro League 2020-2021 calendar, the beta version of One Shot League is now available for free online and on mobile for the next championship day on Friday, March 5th 2021. The experience will last until the end of the season and will also give players the opportunity to compete against each other during the playoffs.
