Cody McGrath 
Sorare is now the NBA’s “Official NFT Fantasy Partner.”
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is going to work with the European non-fungible token (NFT) platform Sorare to make a fantasy basketball game based on digital collectibles.
In a statement on its website, the U.S. basketball league and its players’ union, the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), said they would work with the Paris-based company for several years. Sorare will now be the NBA’s “Official NFT Fantasy Partner.”
Users of the fantasy game will make a lineup of NFT-based collectibles that represent NBA stars and earn points based on how they play in real life. The game will come out in October 2022, just in time for the 2022–2023 season.
After Major League Baseball (MLB) in July, the NBA is the next big sports league to work with Sorare. Bundesliga, Germany’s top soccer league, and La Liga, Spain’s top soccer league, both used Sorare’s NFT services last year.
Sorare makes NFT-based sports games with licenses from major leagues and teams. The company says that 2 million people in 185 countries have signed up to play its games.
The NBA has been doing things with digital assets for a long time. One example is the digital collectibles platform Top Shot, which lets users buy highlights from games on the Flow blockchain. In May, sales of Top Shot went over $1 billion.