Fanatics has spent the past decade turning from a sports merchandise retailer into a broad sports commerce platform, and CEO Michael Rubin says the company still has plenty of room to grow. Speaking at the CNBC Sport x Boardroom Game Plan Summit in New York, Rubin said Fanatics could eventually become the most valuable company in sports, backed by its businesses in apparel, collectibles, betting and gaming.
The company’s reach now extends across much of sports fandom. Rubin said Fanatics serves more than 150 million customers through activities such as buying jerseys, trading cards and placing bets. He also said the company expects more than 200,000 people to attend Fanatics Fest over its four-day run, underscoring how the brand is trying to build a larger consumer ecosystem around sports.
Where Fanatics will not go
Even with that ambition, Rubin drew clear lines around two areas Fanatics will avoid: ticketing and live sports broadcasting. He described ticketing as a difficult, crowded business in which rights holders such as teams, artists and content providers keep most of the money. Broadcasting, meanwhile, is an arena he said is already dominated by major companies, making it a category Fanatics would rather watch from the sidelines.
Rubin said the company is still looking for new lines of business that could use its relationships with customers, sports properties and athletes. He suggested Fanatics could have several additional businesses a decade from now that are as important as the three core areas it has today. The company’s last public funding round came in December 2022, when it raised $700 million at a valuation of $31 billion. Rubin has also said previously that there is no urgency to take the company public.
Source: cnbc.com
