The company's specific trading card business was valued at $10.4 billion in September 2021 after a $350 million Series A round that included Silver Lake, Endeavor Group holdings and private equity firm Insight Partners, according to multiple media reports. In recent months, the company has looked to advance its trading cards and collectibles business, adding things like game-worn jersey patches to rookie cards and launching a livestream shopping experience where card collectors can take part in live card "breaking." Topps was ultimately acquired by Fanatics in January 2022. The move also helped to terminate a SPAC merger for Topps after it lost the MLB rights. In 2021, Fanatics signed a deal with MLB and its players association to become the exclusive licensee of baseball cards, ending what had been a 70-year relationship between Topps and MLB. In recent years, the company has turned toward trading cards and collectibles and sports betting, looking to deepen the connection it has already made with millions of sports fans through its apparel business. "If Panini had been as unsuccessful as Fanatics pretends, Fanatics would not have had to use decades-long exclusive dealing arrangements to lock it out of the market, or improperly cut off Panini's supply, interfere with Panini's production facilities, and raid its employees," Boies said in the statement.įanatics declined to comment further on the lawsuits.įanatics, which started as an e-commerce platform in 2011, has quickly grown to hold exclusive merchandise rights spanning from the NFL and NBA to the International Olympic Committee. In a statement provided to CNBC, David Boies, chairperson of Boies Schiller Flexner and the legal counsel for Panini, said that Fanatics' lawsuit is "a desperate attempt to avoid dealing with its serious antitrust liability as set out in the litigation filed against it last week." Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lowerįanatics claims Panini "embarked on a protracted, unlawful, and deceitful campaign of unfair trade practices, strong-arm tactics, and tortious misconduct to hamper Fanatics Collectibles' nascent business, in the hopes that it could force Fanatics Collectibles to pay an extortionate amount for Panini to terminate its licenses early." Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
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