Fanatics launching new livestreamed marketplace for trading cards

Fanatics is taking its next step toward selling and marketing trading cards and sports memorabilia to collectors by launching a digital livestreamed marketplace.

According to CNBC, the new Fanatics Live platform, which will launch in the second half of 2023, will feature a website and standalone app where collectors and customers can buy trading cards. The digital platform will also feature live breaking as well as curated and personality driven-content designed to market collectibles.

Fanatics, which owns Topps, secured the trading card rights for MLB, NFL and NBA in 2021 and acquired Topps last year to facilitate its baseball card rights. It’s NFL and NBA contracts begin in 2026 unless it strikes a deal to purchase trading card company Panini, which currently produces licensed football and basketball cards.

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A big question since Fanatics entered the hobby has been how the $30 billion company would market and distribute cards and collectibles to customers. The new digital platforms appear to be the first step toward a direct-to-consumer model.

While Fanatics has vowed to work with card and hobby shops, the latest move also indicates it plan to have a role in breaking as well.

Fanatics Live will be run by CEO Nick Bell, who previously worked for Google Search and Snap. Bell will report to Mike Mahan, the new CEO of Fanatics Collectibles.

“All collectors are fans, but not all fans are collectors,” Bell said in an interview with CNBC. “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.

“This is not just about taking a product and selling it; it’s about creating this really entertaining format and experience.”

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The livestream shopping model has become popular in the last two years with major retail outlets like Amazon, eBay and Walmart hosting livestream shopping experiences. According to CNBC, the livestreaming e-commerce market is expected to grow to $32 billion in 2023, up from $6 billion in 2020.

Online shopping has also become a big part of the sports collectible market with companies like eBay, Collectors/Goldin and PWCC Marketplace creating one-stop-shopping platforms where collectors can buy, sell and store cards as well as get them graded and authenticated.

Bell said Fanatics Live will focus solely on trading cards initially with the platform featuring a strong content and entertainment component designed to engage customers.

“Shopping should become a byproduct of entertainment rather than how I think a lot of folks have been thinking about it, which is more akin to how we would think about QVC where it’s just about the shopping,” Bell told CNBC. “I think we’re moving to a slightly different world where it’s actually about the content and the community, and the shopping is the byproduct.”