Sports retailer Fanatics is set to launch a brand of trading cards in a bid to move beyond sports and into a broader pop culture space.
As Bloomberg News reported Tuesday (March 8), the company will look to ink licensing deals with production studios, musicians and fashion houses, aiming to gain access to intellectual property with an active fanbase.
“It’s all of the important people, brands and companies in our lives other than sports,” Josh Luber, co-founder and chief vision officer of Fanatics. “At some point there will definitely be trading-card sets for politicians, for businesspeople.”
The first line from the card brand, dubbed Zerocool, is being done in partnership with investor Gary Vaynerchuk, based on his NFT project VeeFriends. Fanatics will sell cards through its website, allowing users to bid in a little-used method called a blind Dutch auction, designed to promote equity in pricing, Bloomberg said.
Read more: Fanatics Valued at $27B After $1.5B Investment Round
Under the leadership of CEO Michael Rubin, Fanatics has branched out from its original mission of selling sports merchandise to include offerings like sports betting and non-fungible tokens (NFTS.) Bloomberg said the company is also developing a card-breaking operation, which lets shoppers split the cost of boxes and have their packs opened on camera as entertainment for a streaming audience.
Fanatics executives say the company has no plans to get into card grading, but may soon sign an an existing card grading company as a partner.
See also: Read more: Sports Memorabilia Biz Braces for Change As Fanatics Buys Topps for $500M
The news arrives days after Fanatics reportedly raised $1.5 billion in a funding round that valued the company at $27 billion.
Earlier this year, Fanatics purchased trading card giant Topps for $500 million after Topps’ plans to go public via a special purpose acquisition company fell through.
It also recently joined rappers Jay-Z, Meek Mill and Lil Baby, and entrepreneur Maverick in purchasing retro sports apparel company Mitchell & Ness last month for $250 million, with Fanatics grabbing three-quarters of the ownership stake.
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