Fanatics: Building A Global Sports Empire, One Jersey At A Time

These days, if you’re looking to buy an official team jersey—a popular gift choice as the holiday season approaches—you’d likely head straight to Fanatics’ website.

Indeed, with over 100 million fans on their database and 900 deals with the world’s biggest sports teams, Fanatics, has more or less, become the one-stop shop for official merchandise. 

Expanding Beyond Top Leagues

For example, the brand’s global appeal isn’t limited to the top-tier leagues but extends to other levels of professional sports. More specifically, in November 2024, Fanatics announced a new partnership with Leeds United, a soccer club in the Championship or for those unfamiliar with the English football pyramid, a competition similar to the minor leagues. This bold move underlines its growing reach and ambition to cater to fans of all levels of competition, and solidifies its position as the go-to in sports apparel. Getting to this point, however—when fans instinctively browse the offerings at Fanatics over any other apparel distributor—didn’t happen overnight. Rather, it has taken two decades of acquisitions, strategic investments, and capital backing to gain their commanding foothold in the sports merchandise industry.

The Early Days

Michael Rubin is the CEO and founder of Fanatics and began his journey in the apparel industry in 2002 when he was running GSI Commerce. During Rubin’s opening foray into the merchandise industry, his company managed to secure its first e-commerce deal with NASCAR. It was a big deal at the time, even though very little was made of it in the media as the online retail sector was relatively untouched. Rubin recognized the opportunity early on and sought to capitalize on the head start it provided. As a result, Rubin focused on securing e-commerce rights with all major North American sports leagues.

Doing this helped the determined entrepreneur to position himself ahead of the curve and laid the groundwork for what was to come when he acquired Fanatics in 2011. This acquisition brought hundreds of additional deals and significantly expanded Rubin’s portfolio of e-commerce partners. Subsequently, Rubin was able to aggressively pursue his goal of enabling fans worldwide to purchase their favorite teams’ colors and jerseys, with the foundations now in place for exponential growth. Over the last 13 years, Fanatics has raised over $5 billion in funding to bring this vision to life.

Building Beyond Merchandise

Fanatics is valued at over $31 billion today and has agreements in place with nearly 1,000 sporting organizations worldwide from the NFL to the Premier League and even WWE. From the NHL’s 2024/2025 on-ice uniforms to the highly popular Toronto Raptors City Edition jerseys, and even the stylish MLB All-Star Game outfits making a comeback in 2025, the proof is there that Fanatics has become the most influential force and the most desirable partner in the world of sports merchandise.

Coming 2024: NHL 🤝 Fanatics: A new on-ice uniform partner across the NHL starting 2024-25. 😎 

This remarkable evolution, however, is not limited to apparel alone, given that the Fanatics brand has also expanded over the last three years to form Fanatics Collectibles and Fanatics Betting and Gaming. While both subsidiaries are experiencing impressive growth, it is Fanatics Betting and Gaming that is making tsunami-like waves in the sports betting industry and now reaches nearly 95% of the U.S. market for online sports bettors. Part of the reason behind this success is their generous opening offers for new clients. For instance, the latest sports betting with Fanatics promotion involves a ‘bet and get $1,000 in no sweat bets.’ Essentially, this promotion gives new bettors a chance to try the platform with the safety net of a refund if their first bet doesn’t win. 

Fanatics: A Platform for the Future

While these dynamic sign-up offers are contributing to the rapid rise of Fanatics Betting and Gaming, they highlight a broader narrative: Fanatics’ ability to innovate and expand stems from the strong foundation established by its merchandise division.

Rickey Henderson’s first-ever base-design Topps Chrome autograph is finally here. 

In short, Fanatics has built a platform that not only caters to sports fans but also serves as a launchpad for the brand’s ventures into new markets. The most logical question now is: what does the future hold for Fanatics? While only time will tell, one thing is certain: the Fanatics juggernaut shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.