The world’s largest seller of licensed sports merchandise just [insert your favorite sports metaphor here]. Fanatics is entering a joint venture with Hillhouse Capital Group, Asia’s biggest private equity firm, to set up shop in China.
Fanatics China, based in Shanghai, will establish local e-comm partnerships for international teams and leagues. With Hillhouse’s help, Fanatics enlisted Alibaba and Tencent to power the online stores; IRL shops are also in the works.
An untapped market: In China, fandoms for US sports are growing with a nudge from mobile platforms like WeChat. Fanatics thinks it can direct those fans to its e-comm channels.
- The 50/50 joint venture is expected to be worth more than $1 billion.
- Fanatics believes China’s licensed sports apparel market could be worth $3 billion to $5 billion.
A slow burn: After 25 years in business, Fanatics has been on a Steph Curry-esque tear of late.
- Annual revenue jumped to more than $3 billion last year from $2.5 billion in 2019.
- E-comm, a decades-old Fanatics business segment, increased 30% over the first 6 months of 2020.
Looking ahead...Fanatics’s rising valuation ($6.2 billion as of its 2020 Series E) and international expansion are feeding rumors the company will IPO.
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