Fanatics is planning to put a credit card in the wallets of sports fans, allowing them to earn rewards to get team merch, trading cards and collectibles.
To learn more about the CNBC CFO Council, visit cnbccouncils.com/cfo Fanatics plans to launch its first credit card later this year, further expanding the growing number of touchpoints the sports retail giant has with fans.
The new card, which will launch on the American Express network in the U.S., will allow fans to earn FanCash, Fanatics' digital reward currency, which can be redeemed for apparel, tickets, trading cards, collectibles and other experiences. It will serve as a further expansion of Fanatics' loyalty program, called Fanatics ONE, which it launched last year and now has more than 30 million users. Cardholders will gain additional benefits and elevated tier status in the program.
"It's the continuing maturity of our businesses and our platform overall that we've grown pretty meaningfully that we're now starting to see enough scale and integration across the different businesses that a loyalty program and currency have real utility and engagement with fans at scale," said Tucker Kain, Fanatics chief strategy and growth officer. "The credit card will be another tool for sports fans that doesn't really exist today, giving them rewards across all they do from a fandom point of view, and really being able to bring that back into your excitement about your team, player or league that you're following." Kain said that Fanatics, which has made the CNBC Disruptor 50 list three times, is on track to issue more than $1 billion of its FanCash this year, and expects about 97% to be redeemed by fans. The currency can be earned across the growing number of Fanatics business lines, which include sports merchandise, collectibles, and trading cards, as well as its sportsbook operations. Fanatics also launched prediction markets last year.
Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin said on CNBC earlier this month that the company will approach $14 billion in revenue this year. By comparison, the company had about $8 billion in total revenue in 2024, according to previous CNBC reporting.
Kain said that while the company's merchandise business continues to grow, Fanatics is also seeing positive momentum from its collectibles business. Driven by its 2022 acquisition of trading card company Topps, Fanatics has landed recent deals with the NFL, NBA and FIFA around collectibles and trading cards. Rubin said on CNBC that Fanatics' collectibles business is on track for about $5 billion in revenue this year.
The company is also seeing a growing opportunity around partnerships with brands that are interested in reaching sports fans across Fanatics' platforms and physical presences, which included its sports fan festival, Fanatics Fest. Earlier this year, Fanatics signed a partnership with AT&T aimed at reaching fans in a variety of ways.
Among American Express card holders, nearly 80% identify as sports fans, said Elizabeth Rutledge, chief marketing officer at American Express. That is one of the reasons why the financial services firm is signing a partnership with Fanatics to be its official payments partner at select retail and online locations globally, and a presenting sponsor of Fanatics Fest.
"Our card members love sports … this partnership just really deepens that footprint," Rutledge said, adding that Amex now has partnerships with more than 50 leagues, teams, venues and events, including a new partnership with the NFL that sees it become the league's official payments partner, replacing rival Visa. "We want to be where our card members are," she said.
Rutledge said that the overlap between the sports fans that Amex reaches through its existing sponsorships and the 100 million people in the Fanatics' ecosystem highlights the "connection across fandoms." "For us, with partnerships with leagues like the NFL, NBA, WNBA and Formula 1, this is the place they're going to get that fan apparel and merch for their favorite team," she said.
American Express will also be adding the Fanatics credit card as one of its transfer partners, allowing U.S. Amex membership rewards members to convert their rewards into FanCash.
However, while the Fanatics card will be a part of the American Express Network, the card will be issued by First Electronic Bank and managed by Imprint. Co-branded cards from companies like Delta and Marriott, for example, are issued and managed by American Express directly.
Kain said that all of these efforts are changing "what it means to be a sports fan at scale." "The path we're on is to really connect the fan experience across teams, leagues, sports and passions broadly," he said. "That gives us the ability to partner with brands that care about sports fans as well, and deepen and drive better experiences for sports fans." Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.
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