IOC, Fanatics Build First-Ever Global Olympics Online Shop
The International Olympic Committee has tapped Fanatics to build its first-ever global ecommerce platform, a centralized online store to hold merchandise from current, future and previous Games.
In the past, each Olympic and Paralympic host committee has worked with its own vendor to create a shop specific to those Games. Under this new agreement, which runs through the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Games, Fanatics will build and operate a unified central Olympic Shop.
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This is just the latest way in which the IOC, which has historically leaned heavily on individual host committees and national governing bodies, is starting to centralize various commercial opportunities. The IOC recently announced a first-of-its-kind global hospitality deal with Endeavor’s On Location Experiences and is currently discussing a new global ticketing platform, starting with the 2024 Games.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
The new shop will feature product from Paris 2024, Milano-Cortina 2026 and Los Angeles 2028, plus items from prior Games, utilizing old IP that has historically gone unused for commercial purposes once those events conclude. As part of the deal, Fanatics also received the right to make and sell merchandise with the Olympic rings around the globe (excluding China, which has a separate wide-ranging deal with Alibaba and its Tmall marketplace).
The world’s largest seller of licensed sports merchandise, Fanatics continues to scoop up ecommerce (and product) rights from top-tier teams, leagues and governing bodies around the world. That core business growth comes as Michael Rubin’s company is also expanding into new verticals. In the past few months Fanatics has launched a trading card company (valued at $10.4 billion) and an NFT marketplace (valued at $1.5 billion), with a sports-betting acquisition likely on the horizon.
Separate from this IOC deal, Fanatics inked a partnership with the Paris 2024 host committee, making it the official ecommerce provider for those Games. As a result of that deal, the official Paris 2024 shop will be fully integrated into the global IOC shop.
Fanatics is also the official ecommerce partner of Team USA.
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