Fanatics inks partnership with WWE
U.S. digital sports company Fanatics announced on Monday it has inked a partnership with American media company World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), across several businesses globally.
As part of the deal launching this summer, Fanatics said it will utilize its digital sports platforms — Fanatics Commerce, Fanatics Collectibles and Candy Digital — to create a new experience for WWE fans globally across several businesses, including e-commerce and licensed merchandise, as well as physical, digital, and non-fungible token (NFT) trading cards.
Fans of WWE will have access to a new e-commerce and mobile destination, WWE Shop, where they can shop merchandise collections designed and manufactured collaboratively by Fanatics and the teams at WWE, including on-demand merchandise collections to celebrate unpredictable WWE moments and new and emerging superstars, Fanatics said in a press release.
Fanatics Collectibles, the company’s trading cards and collectibles division, will also become the exclusive provider of licensed WWE physical and digital trading cards, which will once again bear the nostalgic Topps logo. Fanatics acquired the legendary 70-year-old Topps brand earlier this year, which previously held a long-term relationship with WWE. That deal will commence when WWE’s existing trading cards rights expire over the next few years, the company said.
“WWE is one of the most widely admired sports and entertainment properties worldwide, and it made perfect sense to activate many parts of our Fanatics global platform to create a first-of-its-kind, all-in fan experience,” said Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin.
“From e-commerce and licensed merchandise to trading cards and more, we’re going to offer up an incredible set of capabilities to help WWE’s passionate fans worldwide celebrate their favorite Superstars, marquee events and the WWE brand overall.”
Also under the pact, later this year Fanatics’ next generation digital collectibles company, Candy Digital, will become one of WWE’s primary NFT partners, where Candy’s team will curate and build a full range of trading card NFTs featuring WWE’s biggest moments and stars.
The WWE partnership comes just weeks after Fanatics reportedly inked $1.5 billion in new financing, which valued the U.S. sports platform at $27 billion, according to a Reuters report.
