Sotheby’s Expands NFT Arm With Liverpool FC Partnership

Storied soccer club Liverpool FC is aping into the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), announcing its debut collection in partnership with the Polygon-based Sotheby’s Metaverse on Thursday.

The collection’s artwork will feature generative imagery of each of its 24 players, in what the club says will be an “innovative way to celebrate being an LFC fan from anywhere in the world,” according to a press release.

The collection will also feature 24 “Legendary” one-of-one editions, one for each player, that will be auctioned off individually on March 30.

The rest of the NFTs will be sold at lower price points starting at $75, in a move that the club hopes will keep the digital collectibles accessible for its broader fan base, a representative told CoinDesk.

The partnership is just the latest get for Sotheby’s growing Web 3 arm. The 277-year-old auction house reported over $100 million in NFT in sales in 2021, and is looking to increase that figure in the campaign’s second year.

Read more: Sotheby’s NFT Sales Reach $100M in 2021

The auction house’s physical location in the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan has also seen its fair share of crypto drama in the past year, hosting the infamous ConstitutionDAO auction in November 2021 and more recently a single-lot sale of 104 CryptoPunks that was pulled minutes before bidding in February.

The project says it's looking to expand more into partnerships with new organizations, as opposed to more traditional art-style auctions of already sought-after NFT collections like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club.

“Prior to this project, [Sotheby’s Metaverse] has been focused mainly on crypto-native art. But we can see this project driving into sports, we can also see this in entertainment, fashion and music in the future,” Sebastian Fahey, managing director of Sotheby’s, told CoinDesk in an interview.

Sorare, a fantasy sports NFT marketplace valued at over $4 billion, is the current leader in worldwide soccer-related partnerships of this nature, with deals in place from teams in the top leagues of Italy, Germany and England, among others.