The Sorare NFT soccer trading card game has partnered with the Premier League on a multi-year licensing agreement.
Sorare
Sorare, the $4.3 billion fantasy soccer game, has signed a multi-year deal with the Premier League that will see the world’s top soccer league license official player cards.
Players of the game will be able to purchase and use official Premier League-licensed NFTs under the exclusive multi-year agreement.
Paris-based startup Sorare, which has 3 million users worldwide, lets people compete in fantasy soccer games of five a side. The chances of success are based on the real-time performance of players on the pitch.
Sorare said it’s also launching two new features in the game. These include the ability to compete with league-specific player cards and a “financial fair play” feature that prevents users from selecting all-star teams.
Sorare was first rumored to be in talks with the Premier League — the top tier of England’s men’s soccer leagues — about a licensing agreement in Oct. 2022. Sorare CEO Nicolas Julia said things took longer to wrap up than anticipated as the Premier League had an existing NFT licensing deal with another firm.
Sky News reported earlier that the deal was worth £30 million. Julia declined to share specifics on the financial terms and length of the deal.
The news comes despite a sharp slump in NFT trading activity.
Values of NFTs — or non-fungible tokens — have plummeted amid a downturn in crypto prices known as the “crypto winter,” exacerbated in recent months by the bankruptcy of major exchange FTX.
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According to data site CryptoSlam, the average selling price of an NFT in Dec. 2022 was $143.22, down 63% from $383.73 in Dec. 2021.
Trading volumes are also down significantly. Overall NFT sales plunged 78% in December to $678.2 million from $3.1 billion a year ago.
Julia said Sorare has “trended very differently from the rest of the space.” Total exchanges of cards on the platform amounted to $500 million last year, almost doubling from $270 million in 2021.
Still, the company has noticed a shift in usage with players more inclined to use its “free-to-play” mode where they don’t have to compete with paid-for cards.
Some 87% of Sorare players “don’t even spend money on the platform,” Julia said.
That’s raised an obvious question about the sustainability of Sorare’s model: how does it make money when most of its users aren’t transacting?
For his part, Julia said the big-spending power users were enough to anchor income generation. Sorare takes an unspecified cut of all transactions via its service.
It’s worth noting Sorare is the third-biggest NFT collection worldwide, according to CryptoSlam data. The firm processes roughly $1 million of transactions in a 24-hour period, CryptoSlam’s figures show.
The Premier League’s partnership with Sorare adds to a slew of deals between sports leagues and crypto platforms.
Sorare itself has previously announced deals with Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association.
Some agreements, like Crypto.com’s deal for the naming rights to the Staples Center arena in Los Angeles and FTX’s now-defunct sponsorship of the Miami-Dade Arena, have soured amid the plunge in crypto prices.
Julia said Sorare was sheltered from the fallout of the crash on crypto-focused sports advertising as his firm focuses on licensing of intellectual property rather than sponsorships.
The French startup was last valued by investors at $4.3 billion in September 2021. Sorare is backed by top names including Japan’s SoftBank and venture capital firms Accel and Benchmark. It also counts sports stars Lionel Messi, Serena Williams and Kylian Mbappe as shareholders.
Sorare has not been without its controversies and has come under fire over accusations that it encourages gambling.
The U.K. Gambling Commission is investigating the firm “to establish whether Sorare.com requires an operating license or whether the services it provides do not constitute gambling,” according to an Oct. 8, 2021 notice.
Julia said he was unable to provide an update yet on the process of the U.K. inquiry.
In November, the startup committed to making some changes to its platform after action taken by the French National Gambling Authority. Those included strengthening the free-to-play elements of the game. The company is required to enforce these measures by Mar. 31.
Companies such as Getir and Gorillas promise to deliver items to shoppers’ doors in as little as 10 minutes.
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Grocery delivery startup Getir announced on Monday that it is quitting international markets including the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S., marking a major setback for the once hyped online grocery industry.
The Istanbul, Turkey-based firm said in a statement that it was withdrawing from its U.S. and European markets and would now refocus its financial resources on Turkey.
The company said it raised a new investment round led by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and venture capital firm G Squared “to bolster its competitive position in its core food and grocery delivery businesses in Turkey.”
Getir said it generates 7% of its revenues from the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S.
“Getir expresses its sincere appreciation for the dedication and hard work of all its employees in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.S.,” the company said.
Pandemic grocery hype fades
Getir was one of the most-hyped online grocery delivery companies at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, when people around the world flocked to online services for their shopping purchases.
The company, which was founded in 2015, has raised a whopping $1.8 billion to date. Getir raised $768 million of that sum in 2022, at a sky-high valuation of $11.8 billion.
Getir’s valuation has since sunk considerably, with the company having reportedly seen billions of dollars wiped off its market value.
Getir raised funds from key backers including Mubadala, G Squared and ex-Sequoia Capital partner Michael Moritz, at a $2.5 billion valuation, according to a September 2023 Financial Times report, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
That would mark a hefty 79% discount to Getir’s previously disclosed valuation. CNBC was unable to independently verify the FT report.
Struggling space
Getir’s bright purple and yellow branding had become a common sight on mopeds whizzing around the city to deliver groceries on demand in bustling cities such as London and New York.
Getir’s business, and others like it, rely on a model where groceries are packed at local so-called “dark stores” peppered about a major city in spots that are close to areas with a dense urban population.
Groceries would be packed up by staff at Getir’s stores and then delivered by its fleet of drivers in a matter of minutes. Getir touted delivery times of as little as 10 minutes.
Gorillas, another grocery delivery company with a model similar to Getir’s, faced financial struggles in 2022 when high interest rates and soaring inflation put pressure on its business. The brand was acquired by Getir in December 2022 for $1.2 billion.
SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives on the red carpet for the Axel Springer Award 2020 on Dec. 1, 2020 in Berlin, Germany.
Britta Pedersen | Getty Images
Shares of Tesla rose sharply in U.S. premarket trading on Monday after the electric car maker passes a significant milestone to roll out its full self-driving technology in China.
The company’s share price spiked more than 10% just after 7:30 a.m. ET, as investors reacted to news surrounding Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s visit to China.
Tesla on Sunday said that local Chinese authorities removed restrictions on its cars after passing the country’s data security requirements.
The move raised expectations that Tesla’s driver-assistance software Full Self Driving (FSD) would soon be available in the country, which is the largest market for electric vehicles.
FSD is an upgrade to Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistant. Tesla has offered its FSD technology in China for years, but with a restricted feature set that limits it to operations, such as automated lane changing.
Data security concerns have been a key obstacle preventing Tesla from achieving a full rollout of the system in China.
Tesla also reportedly scored a deal with Baidu that would give Musk’s firm access to the Chinese internet giant’s mapping and navigation technology for Tesla’s FSD feature.
The agreement would allow Tesla to tap into Baidu’s mapping service license, which is a requirement for intelligence driving systems to operate on public roads in China, Reuters reported, citing two anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
CNBC was unable to independently verify the report. Tesla and Baidu were not immediately available for comment.
With the license, which foreign companies can only clinch in partnership with local Chinese firms, Tesla will be allowed to legally operate FSD on Chinese roads, and its fleets will be able to gather data about traffic, road signs and routes.
The breakthrough for Tesla toward bringing its FSD self-driving technology to China marks a key win for the firm at a time when it is facing hefty competition in the Chinese market. Local rivals such as Warren Buffett-backed electric vehicle maker BYD, Nio, and Xpeng have ramped up their competition with Tesla in recent years.
US multinational computer technology company Oracle’s logo is pictured at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry’s biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona on February 27, 2024. The world’s biggest mobile phone fair throws open its doors in Barcelona with the sector looking to artificial intelligence to try and reverse declining sales. (Photo by PAU BARRENA / AFP) (Photo by PAU BARRENA/AFP via Getty Images)
Pau Barrena | Afp | Getty Images
U.S. cloud infrastructure provider Oracle is boosting its generative AI capabilities as cloud competition intensifies and more companies jump into AI.
The AI boom — fueled by the launch of chatbot ChatGPT in November 2022 — is driving an increase in demand for cloud computing services and data centers, as large amounts of data are required in AI model training and the cloud provides access to vast datasets.
Oracle has been introducing generative AI capabilities into its cloud infrastructure and applications to complement the traditional AI already embedded in them.
“The classic AI is very good in terms of detecting patterns or predicting numbers … but you cannot use large language models to predict numbers,” Rondy Ng, executive vice president of applications development at Oracle, told CNBC.
“So we combined the predictive numbering capability with the explained ability in words. So the two together become very powerful and you need both. In the past many years, the number prediction part is already very mature. As part of the product we continue to evolve that and it’s not going to stop. Generative AI is basically the talk of the town right now,” said Ng.
In March, Oracle announced additional generative AI features embedded across applications in finance, supply chain, human resources, sales, marketing, and service. The generative AI capabilities can perform tasks such as generating financial reports and drafting job ads, improving productivity and reducing business costs, Oracle said.
This comes after the firm announced the implementation of generative AI across its technology stack in January.
“We believe Oracle is seeing a renaissance of growth with its AI strategy. [It is] well positioned to be a major beneficiary of the AI revolution,” said Dan Ives, managing director of Wedbush Securities, in emailed comments to CNBC on Wednesday.
“The data Oracle sits on and installed base gives Ellison & co. a major advantage to monetize the software layer of AI,” said Ives, referring to Oracle’s chairman and chief technology officer Larry Ellison.
As firms talked up the generative AI story last year, technology providers have to be one step ahead of the cycle, research firm Gartner said in a report on April 17. “They are bringing GenAI capabilities to existing products and services, as well as to use cases being identified by their enterprise clients.”
JPMorgan has said generative AI and AI could drive incremental IT spending and growth across the software landscape. “Many software vendors, including Oracle, have cited benefits from ongoing investments by businesses into AI technologies,” JPMorgan analysts said in a note on March 12.
Oracle might see an increase in revenue and positive impact on its shares if the company manages to capture a larger-than-expected share of the spending into AI, the U.S. investment bank said. Oracle’s shares have spiked 23.74% in the last 12 months, according to FactSet data.
“Generative AI services [are] basically a huge advantage comparing with our competition. The competition needs to work with different companies and cloud providers for that infrastructure and those kinds of services. We actually take everything into an integrated stack, and we consume that,” Ng told CNBC.
AI growth
Oracle has lagged behind rivals like Amazon, Microsoft and Google in cloud infrastructure service market share, according to Synergy Research Group, which ranked Oracle as the sixth-largest service provider, alongside IBM, globally.
“Oracle did follow the hyperscalers. [I think] that’s not a competitive concern, say for the rest of 2024 and in the foreseeable future. We’re at the very beginning stage of this whole new generative AI journey,” said Ron Westfall, research director at Futurum Group.
“Interesting to us is management commentary suggesting its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure backlog is significant and AI isn’t yet really driving revenue, which is expected to be more meaningful in FY25,” said Deutsche Bank analysts on Mar. 12.
Ellison said in March that a Salt Lake City data center that Oracle is building can fit eight Boeing 747 airplanes nose-to-tail.
Laying out future market opportunities, Ellison said he sees more national and state government applications being run on platforms like Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and added that the firm is negotiating sovereign regions with a number of countries.
“Another area [where Oracle] is ahead of the curve, although everybody’s jumping on it, is in terms of offering sovereign AI cloud – a cloud that operates exclusively within a country,” said Westfall.
“More and more countries are going to say when it comes to gen AI, we want all that information, all that data stored within the country.”
In April, Oracle said it would invest more than $8 billion in Japan over the next 10 years to grow cloud computing and AI infrastructure.