“Inspired by Topps trading cards, the first-of-its-kind credit card design lets fans select their favorite player from a roster of more than 500 NBA, NFL, UFC and WWE athletes — with more leagues and players to come,” Fanatics said in a Monday (Nov. 9) news release. “This is made possible by Fanatics’ longstanding relationships with leagues and players associations.”
Starting Monday, fans in the U.S. can sign a waitlist for the card, with invitations to apply set to go out later this year.
The card earns FanCash—Fanatics’ loyalty currency—on “fandom purchases and everyday spending,” redeemable on Fanatics platform for authentic apparel, trading cards, collectibles, tickets, and access to events, the release added.
A report on the launch by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) quoted Matt Schulz, chief consumer finance analyst at LendingTree. He said the partnership is noteworthy because card issuers typically use controversial areas like gambling and prediction markets.
The Fanatics card can’t be used to place bets directly, and many major betting sites don’t accept credit cards to comply with state laws designed to keep gamblers from rapidly compounding debt, the WSJ added.
However, the card could end up rewarding people who may use cash to fund their gambling, then charge other costs to their credit card, said Bruce McClary, spokesman at the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.
Glenn H. Schiffman, chief financial officer at Fanatics, told the WSJ that customers of other credit card programs can already opt to spend cash-back rewards on gambling. The company also contended that FanCash holds a lesser value when redeemed on betting than when used on other areas of the business.
Schiffman said the card was created to appeal to the large portions of Americans who are more interested in sports than typical credit-card rewards such as dining and travel.
In other credit card news, PYMNTS wrote last week about new Federal Reserve data showing that revolving credit, which includes credit cards, made up more than half of September’s $28 billion increase in consumer credit while accounting for around 25% of outstanding balances.
Meanwhile, October PYMNTS Intelligence research showed that—among cardholders who were paying in full less often than a year earlier—29.6% had seen their regular costs increase, with 27.5% saying those expenses outweighed their income.
“Only 9.2% named a large unexpected expense as the main reason,” the report said. “That puts the emphasis on bills households expect to pay again next month. A separate July survey identified groceries, utilities and fuel or transportation as the most commonly cited sources of summer budget pressure.”
