WWE and Fanatics have confirmed a long-term sports and entertainment partnership across ecommerce, licensed merchandise, trading cards and NFTs.
The deal means that WWE will benefit from numerous capabilities across the Fanatics platform, creating more opportunities for its global fanbase to showcase their passion for WWE, its marquee events and star-studded roster.
The businesses that will work together to create an elevated fan experience including Fanatics Commerce, Fanatics Collectibles and Candy Digital.
This summer will see Fanatics exclusively re-introduce a new ecommerce and mobile destination – WWE Shop – giving fans access to an assortment of merchandise across all categories including apparel, hard goods (such as title belts), headwear and accessories.
Fanatics will work closely and collaboratively with the teams at WWE which have significantly grown this business in-house for decades, and the company will also add rights to design, manufacture and distribute real-time, on-demand merchandise collections to celebrate unpredictable WWE moments and new and emerging Superstars.
In addition, Fanatics Collectibles – the company’s trading cards and collectables division – will also become the exclusive provider of licensed WWE physical and digital trading cards, which will bear the Topps logo.
Fanatics acquired the Topps brand earlier this year, which previously held a long-term relationship with WWE. That deal will commence when WWE’s existing trading cards rights expire over the next few years.
Also under the pact, later this year Fanatics’ next generation digital collectables company, Candy Digital, will become one of WWE’s primary NFT partners.
“We believe this multi-platform partnership will set a new standard for WWE e-commerce, apparel and merchandise, while providing our fans globally with more ways than ever to engage with WWE and our Superstars,” commented Vince McMahon, chairman and ceo of WWE.
Michael Rubin, ceo at Fanatics, added: “WWE is one of the most widely admired sports and entertainment properties worldwide, and it made perfect sense to activate many parts of our Fanatics global platform to create a first-of-its-kind, all-in fan experience.
“From e-commerce and licensed merchandise to trading cards and more, we’re going to offer up an incredible set of capabilities to help WWE’s passionate fans worldwide celebrate their favourite Superstars, marquee events and the WWE brand overall.”
Want to read more news like this? Simply sign up to our daily digest by clicking here. You can also follow @LicensingSource on Twitter and @licensing_source on Instagram.
