05-03-2025
Fanatics enters ticketing market via partnership with Ticketmaster: What this means for fans
Fanatics has officially entered the ticketing market. The company has teamed up with Ticketmaster to launch the Fanatics Ticket Marketplace. In addition to apparel and collectibles, the Fanatics app will let people buy resale tickets. This partnership is part of a broader collaboration between Fanatics and Live Nation's Ticketmaster, enabling Ticketmaster tickets to be listed on Fanatics while Fanatics merchandise becomes available on Ticketmaster.
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Fanatics has been investing heavily over the past few years to create a comprehensive commerce platform, including its acquisition of Topps in 2022. Previously, it has been reported that Fanatics considered building its own ticketing market platform before ultimately deciding to partner with Ticketmaster.
Fanatics executive Tucker Kain told Sportico: 'Having Ticketmaster/Live Nation as a potential partner across a number of things, like distributing our merchandise [through them], there's an opportunity to start here a build a bigger partnership over time.'
With this new Ticketmaster partnership and the launch of Fanatics Ticket Marketplace, Fanatics extends what seems to be a thesis to surround the entire sports fan experience.
Through Fanatics, you can:
The common thread: Spend your money on your sports fandom with Fanatics. (Compare that business model to 'Watch this sports event and we'll sell access to your attention to advertisers.') That model is wildly successful: Fanatics did more than $8 billion in revenue in 2024, up 15 percent from 2023.
And then there is the company's experiential division, Fanatics Events: You might have heard of Fanatics Fest, a weekend in New York City in June that wants to do for sports collectibles what Comic-Con does for pop culture. (Fanatics Fest also recently signed a huge five-year sponsorship deal with the State of Qatar that included a sponsorship agreement around Fanatics Fest.) Ahead of that, Fanatics Events will have a massive presence at Wrestlemania 41 in Las Vegas in April, operating WWE World, which is the same model — Comic-Con for WWE.
Let's not forget about Fanatics Live, which is the company's first effort into live sports programming — mostly around collectibles. But Fanatics has the wallet that if they wanted to get into live-sports acquisition and distribution, they could; they simply seem to choose not to, instead focusing on those core cash-driving business lines.
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Think of Fanatics as collecting a Thanos-style Infinity Gauntlet, with each stone a part of the fan-spending puzzle. With a snap — and you are buying an MLB jersey or Topps card or NBA parlay or wristband to get a player to sign something for you at Fanatics Fest or, now, two tickets to see a game — your money heads in their direction. — Dan Shanoff, Managing Editor of Sports Business
