Fanatics Aims for ‘Comic Con for Sports’ With Live Events Business

Fanatics is adding live events to its business as it prepares to go public.

The company’s Fanatics Event offering, announced Thursday (July 13), aims to become to sports collectibles what Comic Con has been for pop culture, per a report by CNBC.

According to the report, the new business will be a partnership with events and talent management company IMG, with Fanatics as the majority owner.

“The launch of our new Fanatics Events business provides an opportunity to celebrate all aspects of fandom — including sports, collectibles, memorabilia, fashion, music and entertainment — under one physical roof in a way that has never been done before,” said Lance Fensterman, CEO of Fanatics Events.

“These new touchpoints will reinforce our commitment to enhancing the overall experience for fans and collectors globally,” he added.

According to CNBC, Fensterman recently left ReedPop, where he oversaw pop culture conventions such as the massive New York Comic Con.

The launch of Fanatics Events is part of the company’s evolution as it prepares to go public. Late last year, the company raised $700 million in a funding round that valued Fanatics at $31 billion and landed it in the upper half of the S&P 500.

Earlier this year, the company began its entrance to the world of livestream shopping with the hiring of Nick Bell, formerly of Snap and Google, as chief executive of Fanatics Live.

“All collectors are fans, but not all fans are collectors,” Bell said at the time. “We have a big opportunity to really grow the hobby by bringing in people who wouldn’t necessarily classify themselves as a collector today and open them up to this hobby by the way of entertainment and a community where they can hang around like-minded people.”

The company also recently expanded its partnership with the WWE, so that Fanatics Commerce — its eCommerce, licensed merchandise and physical retail operations business — will manage on-site retail sales for all of the WWE’s 300-plus wrestling events each year.

Fanatics and WWE first began working together last year on an eCommerce partnership that eventually evolved to encompass licensed merchandise, memorabilia and collectibles.

The company is also in the midst of a bid to acquire online betting platform PointsBet. Last month, rival company DraftKings tried to outbid Fanatics, leading Fanatics to raise its offer in late June.

“We are skeptical of the DraftKings proposal, which seems like a desperate move to slow down Fanatics and PointsBet from completing the deal …,” Fanatics CEO Michael G. Rubin said. “[T]hey are using the majority of their projected year-end cash just to try to block us.”