Fanatics wants to build a loyalty program for sports, rewarding fans with merchandise, tickets and experiences
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Fanatics is building a loyalty program for sports, rewarding fans with merchandise, tickets and experiences
Fanatics is launching a new loyalty program, reflecting its continued growth. Members will be able to redeem their points on everything from apparel and merchandise to exclusive experiences and game tickets. Fanatics has partnerships with nearly every major sports league, including many that hold equity stakes in Fanatics like the NFL, MLB and NHL. It also has expanded beyond merchandise into trading cards, collectibles and sports betting, with Fanatics earning more than $8 billion in revenue in 2024. The new program highlights the company’s expansion beyond merchandise, and “the opportunity to bring [it] together,” CEO says.
Fanatics is launching a new loyalty program, reflecting its continued growth and reach in the sports business industry.
The program, called Fanatics ONE, will offer members points for purchases across the company’s various businesses, which now include its sports merchandise business, collectibles, and trading cards, as well as casino and sportsbook operations. Members will gain access to things like free shipping and giveaways and will be able to redeem their points on everything from apparel and merchandise to exclusive experiences and game tickets.
Tucker Kain, Fanatics’ chief strategy and growth officer, said this new loyalty program highlights the company’s expansion beyond merchandise, and “the opportunity to bring [it] together from a consumer and experience perspective.”
Kain said that Fanatics has roughly 10 million people already in its FanCash program, which it previously rewarded to customers who bought merchandise through its ecommerce platform and its app. Those users will be converted to the Fanatics ONE program.
Fanatics has a vision of building FanCash into “the currency of sport,” Kain said, where fans will be able to acquire not just a new jersey or hat, but tickets, athlete meet-and-greets, access to Super Bowl parties, or Fanatics Fest, the company’s effort to build a Comic-Con-like event for sports that recently held its second edition.
“These are things that sports fans really value and get excited about, and I think our platform is uniquely positioned to do that,” Kain said.
Part of that speaks to the depth of Fanatics’ relationships across the sports industry that it has forged since Michael Rubin founded the company, a three-time CNBC Disruptor 50 company, in 2011. The company has partnerships with nearly every major sports league, including many that hold equity stakes in Fanatics like the NFL, MLB and NHL. It has also struck additional relationships with superstar athletes like LeBron James and Shohei Ohtani.
It also speaks to the company’s growth as it has expanded beyond merchandise into trading cards, collectibles and sports betting, with Fanatics earning more than $8 billion in revenue in 2024.
Still, the bulk of the company’s revenue comes from its core merchandise business, and this new loyalty program will look to expose more sports gear shoppers to what Fanatics has been doing in collectibles and betting.