Sorare Taps Mangopay for Fantasy Sports Cash Wallet

Player-owned fantasy sports platform Sorare is offering its users a new way to make payments.

The company on Wednesday (Aug. 2) announced it was teaming with payments solutions provider Mangopay to debut Cash Wallet, which lets its “managers” make payments using real-world currencies.

“The Cash Wallet offers a secure and effortless solution for making transactions on Sorare,” the company wrote on its blog.

According to Sorare, the virtual wallet lets users buy, sell, and trade Sorare digital player cards with euros, British pounds and American dollars, with rewards able to be received in cash across the platform.

The French company says its digital player cards will still be backed by NFTs and held in Sorare’s ethereum wallet. Adding Cash Wallet will make it easier for managers to buy, sell, and trade their digital player cards, while also depositing and withdrawing cash.

“We’re excited to work with an established player in the fintech industry like Mangopay — which provides services for the likes of Rakuten and Ticketmaster — to deliver a best-in-class offering,” the blog entry added.

PYMNTS spoke last month with Pierre Lion, chief growth officer at Mangopay, about the need for companies to thinking globally to drive growth.

“When you start building your project or your proof of concept, especially for a payment solution, you need to think beyond your local markets from day one because you don’t want to totally rebuild your infrastructure and technology after just a year or two,” Lion said.

However, while he stressed the importance of targeting global markets, he advised against going international too quickly. Instead, he recommends first finding local partners to tailor solutions to local needs as part of build up a strong presence in core markets.

Once that happens, companies can then proceed to replicate the business model in new markets, Lion told PYMNTS. He added that Mangopay’s launch in Luxembourg, roughly 12 years ago, and subsequent move into other countries serves as a proof to the effectiveness of this approach.

And despite the firm’s global ambitions, the company still generates a significant volume of business in the European market, particularly France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

As Lion put it, “it is super important to think globally from the start, but first focus on your local market, get good at it, and then go to a market that looks very alike.”