UK Crime Agency Freezes $13.5M Tied to Sorare Investigation

The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) has frozen $13.5 million in cash as part of an investigation into blockchain company Sorare. The funds are tied to the firm's sponsorship deal with the English Premier League, which was terminated last season. The Sun reported the freeze on Monday, citing court records.

The Court Order and the Frozen Funds

According to The Sun, the freezing order was issued by Westminster Magistrates' Court back in January 2025, though details of the case only became public now. The sum in question is roughly 10 million pounds, or about $13.5 million at current exchange rates. The money, investigators say, landed in accounts linked to Sorare as part of a sponsorship payment. The NCA confirmed the investigation but withheld details about the specific suspicions against the company.

UK law allows courts to freeze assets before formal charges are filed if there are grounds to believe the funds are connected to crime. Orders under the Proceeds of Crime Act are rarely used against major sports sponsors, which is why the Sorare case quickly drew attention from British media. The NCA has used similar orders before against assets tied to crypto schemes and unlicensed gambling, so this case is not the first of its kind.

• About 10 million pounds, or roughly $13.5 million, was frozen
• The funds came from Sorare as part of its Premier League sponsorship deal
• The freezing order was issued by Westminster Magistrates' Court in January 2025
• The order aimed to check for possible links between the funds and third-party crime

"The order was intended to prevent dissipation of the funds while the NCA investigates any potential links between those funds and alleged third-party criminality."

- NCA spokesperson, quoted by The Sun, September 1, 2026

Who Sorare Is and the Premier League Deal

Sorare was founded in France in 2018 by former McKinsey consultants Nicolas Julia and Adrien Montfort. Early backers included footballer Lionel Messi, and in 2022 the startup raised $680 million at a $4.3 billion valuation, with SoftBank among the investors. The project runs on digital player cards built as NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain: cardholders build fantasy teams of real footballers and compete for cash prizes based on match results. Some cards can be resold on a secondary market, a feature that helped turn Sorare into one of the most popular NFT projects of the mid-2020s. Beyond football, Sorare runs similar products tied to US baseball and basketball leagues, MLB and the NBA, making it one of the largest NFT projects in sports.

In 2023, Sorare signed a deal with the Premier League and became the tournament's official fantasy sports partner, gaining rights to use club logos and match data in its app. The deal was terminated before its four-year term ended, late last season. Neither side has publicly named a reason for the split, though the timing lines up with growing regulatory scrutiny of similar products.

Unlicensed Gambling Suspicions

The NCA is examining whether Sorare violated UK gambling law, specifically the Gambling Act 2005. The core question is simple: did the platform need a separate license for card operations that pay out cash prizes tied to real match results. The company holds no gambling license and had built its business model around its status as fantasy sport, which is regulated more loosely in Britain than traditional betting. The UK fantasy sports market is worth hundreds of millions of pounds a year, and that rapid growth is part of why regulators started paying closer attention.

Sorare has argued its product is collecting and prediction skill, not gambling in the classic sense. UK regulators have closely watched such hybrid models in recent years, where the line between skill-based games and gambling gets blurry. Similar questions have come up around fantasy sports services in the US, where some states required separate licensing. British courts have not reached a final ruling on Sorare's status, and the company declined to comment. Gambling licensing in Britain is overseen by a separate Gambling Commission, not the FCA, and its standards will most likely guide any final conclusion about Sorare's status.

Pressure on Crypto Sponsorships in English Football

Back in June, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority sent letters to Premier League clubs warning about questionable sponsorship deals with companies not authorized to operate in the country, including some crypto businesses. The letter came in response to a string of scandals around opaque partnerships in England's lower football divisions.

Despite the warning, some clubs are keeping crypto sponsors for the new season: stablecoin issuer Circle backs Chelsea, and OKX remains Manchester City's partner. Globally, the number of sponsorship deals between crypto companies and sports clubs has been declining since 2022, when the market suffered a sharp downturn. The Sorare case will likely push some brands to reconsider the risks of a public tie to sports once again. Analysts note that sports-focused NFTs remain one of the few corners of the market still drawing new users, even as broader interest in collectible tokens cooled off in 2022 and 2023.