Fanatics Acquires Topps Sports and Entertainment Divisions

[pwaldo]

https://www.beckett.com/news/fanatic...ent-divisions/

It’s official. Fanatics has acquired Topps. The deal includes Topps’ sports and entertainment divisions that are responsible for producing trading cards, both digital and physical, as well as other collectibles.

No jobs are being lost in the acquisition with Fanatics retaining all of Topps’ approximately 350 employees around the world.

“With trading cards and collectibles being a significant pillar of our long-term plans to become the leading digital sports platform, we are excited to add a leading trading cards company to build out our business,” said Michael Rubin, Fanatics CEO. “Their iconic brand, commitment to product excellence and passionate employees worldwide will allow us to immediately serve our league and players’ association partners and our fans.”

With the purchase of Topps, Fanatics can now start producing baseball cards immediately. They had been poised to take over the exclusive MLBPA license in 2023 after current deals expired. Topps had the MLB exclusive deal locked up for a couple of more years after that so Fanatics wouldn’t have been able to produce fully licensed baseball cards until 2026.

All of Topps’ existing deals including Formula 1, UEFA, Bundesliga and Major League Soccer bring even more sports into Fanatics’ trading card portfolio.

Fanatics also has exclusive deals with the NBA, NBAPA and NFLPA once current ones with Panini run out.

[bakemeister52]

Wonder how the card world will be without Topps!

Bake

[JFried1029]

Wonder how the card world will be without Topps!

Bake

@bakemeister52- Rob- I would think they might continue to keep using the Topps name. There's a lot of value behind its history. Once I saw that Fanatics obtained the rights to baseball, I expected this news.

[pwaldo]

Wonder how the card world will be without Topps!

Bake

I agree that they are big time heavyweight that is needed in the card world but they easily have the worst history and prestige in the basketball card market. Not saying they did nothing during their time with the basketball card market but basketball cards are more a Fleer/Skybox or Upper Deck stronghold. Topps just really never focused hard on the basketball card market.