22-23 Fanatics LSB 2022_muk.qxp_NEW LSB 2008 GRID 04/05/2022 16:41 Page 22
THE BIG INTERVIEW: FANATICS Inset: Fanatics vertical commerce model means it can flex and supply demand regularly as teams and players become popular or successful. Below: Matthew Primack, svp international business development, Fanatics.
Fan favourite
As well as being the world’s largest seller of licensed sports merchandise, Fanatics has been busy expanding into a multi-platform company – helping value to more than double in the past 12 months. LSB catches up with its new svp international business development, Matthew Primack, to find out more on how the company – and sport in general – is in a purple patch.
W
hen asked how he would sum up his experience since joining Fanatics in January, Matthew Primack – the company’s svp international business development – confidently states: “Exciting, optimistic, invested.” Fanatics has been well positioned to adapt and take advantage of the shift in consumer behaviour towards buying online during the pandemic. The company is building the leading global digital sports platform, which includes a licensed merchandise business, a collectable and trading cards business, a sports betting and iGaming division, NFT company Candy Digital and 50% ownership in physical sports retail giant, Lids. Matthew, who made the move to Fanatics after 15 years at IMG, has certainly arrived at an exciting time for the business as a whole. “We believe we have an opportunity that no one else in the sports world does – to leverage our database of 80+ million fans, our DTC prowess,
22
LICENSING SOURCE BOOK EUROPE 2022
our leading tech and digital marketing expertise, our incredible relationships with partners worldwide and a trusted brand – to expand the business beyond merchandise to better serve sports fans across the world,” he tells LSB. Fanatics currently partners with 1,000+ sports organisations and clubs in the world including the likes of NFL, NBA, MLB, Manchester United, Chelsea, The FA, England Rugby and Formula One. It recently announced one of the biggest sports merchandising deals in history with Paris Saint-Germain, plus a deal with the Dallas Cowboys, the first ever official online Olympic store, a wideranging deal with WWE and a new deal through Topps (which it acquired in January, significantly strengthening its trading cards offer) with UEFA. “With trading cards and collectables being a significant pillar of our longterm plans to become the leading digital sports platform adding a leading trading cards company like Topps to build out our
