UEFA-Fanatics e-commerce partnership

Article posted by Coliseum, October 3^rd, 2022

Image: UEFA

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and Fanatics, a leading provider of licensed sports merchandise and global digital sports platform, recently announced a long-term e-commerce, event retail and licensing deal, in one of the most comprehensive sports merchandising partnerships in European football.

‘UEFA’ stated that this national team football deal, for both the men’s and women’s games, is an extension of the previous event retail partnership and will now see Fanatics gain e-commerce rights and the right to design and manufacture unbranded apparel.

Nyon (Switzerland)-based the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer in Europe as well as Israel in Asia and the Eurasian transcontinental countries of Russia, Turkey, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and Kazakhstan. UEFA consists of 55 national association members. Because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, FIFA and UEFA suspended all Russian national representative teams and club teams from any FIFA and UEFA competitions.

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Jacksonville (US)-based Fanatics, Inc. is an American online manufacturer and retailer of licensed sportswear, sports collectibles, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), trading cards, and sports merchandise, as well as sports betting and iGaming.

‘UEFA’ further stated that Fanatics will exclusively operate the e-commerce business for UEFA’s national team competitions and will become the master licensee for its full merchandise portfolio with UEFA taking advantage of Fanatics’ vertical commerce model. The new partnership will see Fanatics continue to operate event retail at UEFA’s major international events, including EURO 2024, Women’s EURO 2025 and EURO 2028.

Remarked Guy-Laurent Epstein, UEFA Marketing Director, “We are delighted and excited to have agreed to this long-term partnership with the Fanatics, who are a market leader in their field. Our national team competitions for both the men’s and women’s game are some of the most followed sporting events across the globe and together, we are looking forward to offering fans an extensive range of merchandise so that the memories of these great tournaments remain with them for years to come.”

Maintained Matthew Primack, Senior Vice-President of International Business Development at Fanatics, “UEFA is one of the most respected brands in global sport and we are proud to be chosen to deliver their retail and merchandise solutions. Fanatics are poised to provide UEFA with its first fully integrated e-commerce, event retail and licensed program, and service a truly world-class integrated experience for fans, regardless of whether they choose to shop online, at an event or at a retail store.”

The long-term partnership means that Fanatics will create products or license the rights to category leaders in their respective fields to manufacture and distribute a significantly expanded, realtime selection of UEFA branded products thereby enhancing the choice and experience for fans of European National football.

Fanatics partners with more than 900 sporting organizations and clubs in the world, as well as many top world sporting organizations, including the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), the Tour de France (annual men’s multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France), and Formula One.

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