“The key to Fanatics’ business plan are its long-term exclusive deals with different sports properties, such as the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, and Formula 1. To reach these deals, it will give stakes of its businesses to the leagues themselves, as well as players unions, creating a sort of quasi-cartel that excludes rival merchandising firms.
Just two years ago, it entered sports trading cards in a similar manner, going from zero involvement to complete domination of the hobby in areas of licensing, manufacturing, distribution, and, most recently, resale.”
“Over that same two-year period, Fanatics' memorabilia arm, Fanatics Authentic, penned exclusive licensing agreements with superstars across professional sports including Tom Brady, Jayson Tatum, Auston Matthews, Shohei Ohtani, and several others. The strategy here is to control all aspects of the business, including the
secondary financial market for trading cards. “
They created a monopoly