Fanatics just proved there’s big money in jersey sales

Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

And now they want to move beyond the merch.

The company raised a $325m round that values the firm at $18B, increasing its valuation ~3x from a year ago, per WSJ.

Fanatics has been taking over sports merch 1 league at a time

The company boasts partnerships that make them the official online retailer for:

• Major US sports leagues (NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL, NASCAR, PGA, MLS, UFC)
• 150+ universities
• Major media outlets (CBS Sports, Fox Sports, NBC Sports)
• Select companies overseas

In the process of growing its multi-sport merchandise monopoly, the firm has built up an email list of 83m sports fans.

Now they plan to use the funding to expand into other digital products

Fanatics already launched its own NFT company, Candy Digital, earlier this year and wants to expand into other digital domains, including:

• Sports betting and internet gambling
• Sports media
• Ticketing and events

The firm plans to start with sports betting, a hot space that just got hotter with DraftKings announcing plans to buy Golden Nugget Online Gaming earlier this week.

Fanatics is coming prepared — recently hiring FanDuel’s former CEO Matt King to lead the venture.

Next stop, NYSE?

Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin says the company will go public eventually — but first, it wants to expand.

The firm expects to generate ~$3.4B in revenue this year, 80% of which comes from sales to consumers through Fanatics’ website and those of its partners.

The new round should give them plenty of resources to diversify their revenue streams.