Fanatics Launches Latest Vertical: Live Online Shopping
Fanatics is using the year’s biggest sports collectibles convention to launch its newest vertical, a live online shopping channel.
Fanatics Live will debut Wednesday with a series of trading card “breaks,” where fans can invest in card packs that are then opened live. The streams, which will happen on-site at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago, mark the start of Michael Rubin’s latest expansion of the Fanatics business and his first major push into live video content.
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The plan is for Fanatics Live to operate an online shopping channel, like a digital QVC, to sell product from Fanatics and its many partners. The content will start as a separate app on Apple devices, with Android and desktop versions coming later. The company recently hired former Snap executive Nick Bell to run the venture.
“We see a tremendous opportunity to marry content, community and commerce,” Bell said in a statement.
As with every new vertical launched by Rubin’s company, Fanatics is banking on its network of teams, leagues, athletes and investors to quickly jump on board. The shopping app will debut with a trio of partners—Major League Baseball, Slam Magazine and Gary Vaynerchuk’s VeeFriends—but the plan is to quickly feature product from other parts of the sports world. A beta version included content filmed live from the field during this month’s MLB All-Star Game in Seattle.
There’s also a host of brands within the Fanatics umbrella that will be heavily involved, including Topps trading cards and Lids apparel, plus Fanatics’ growing memorabilia division. Down the line, that could extend to brands like Mitchell & Ness, which Fanatics bought last year for $250 million.
That flywheel is one of the main reasons Fanatics’ valuation has soared in recent years. The company raised money at a $31 billion valuation in December, nearly 5x its $6.2 billion valuation from a round in August 2020.
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