"The financiers attempting to monopolize every nook and cranny"

August 11, 2023 4:53 AM

How Fanatics is Building a Weird Monopoly Over Sports Trading Cards (From Matt Stoller's BIG, a newsletter about monopolies)
posted by box (8 comments total)

Fanatics also is chasing monopolies in branded clothing with the NHL jersey deal and Mitchell and Ness, and has acquired front end stores (Fexpro in LatAm) for sports merch as well as sports betting platforms.
posted by GamblingBlues at 5:44 AM on August 11, 2023

I do not care for Fanatics. I just want a t-shirt for my team and the thing costs upwards of 30 bucks and might fit once, but after washing good luck. And the actual t-shirt material is very low grade. I doubt these developments are gonna be good for the trading card business.
posted by snwod at 6:03 AM on August 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

The exclusive deals with Fanatics will span a decade or more...

Wow excuse me what the heck

Fanatics also is chasing monopolies in branded clothing
That is weird. Maybe? I guess the progression from making replica jerseys to making official jerseys is pretty logical if they're good enough at it. Monopoly-seeking behavior is concerning though.
posted by Baethan at 6:33 AM on August 11, 2023

Fanatics buying Topps was the weirdest, saddest foregone conclusion ever. Honestly, it seems like exactly the kind of thing federal regulators should prevent.

1) Fanatics, who does not have a trading card division/production arm, gets the exclusive contract to make trading cards for Major League Baseball
2) Topps, whose business is heavily dependent on trading cards for Major League Baseball, see its value plummet in the wake of this announcement
3) Fanatics buys Topps on the cheap

Like, how is that okay?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:22 AM on August 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

I am not a super sports guy, I watch Blue Jays games because my partner watches Blue Jays games. I watch the Oilers because it's cold out and sometimes a person just wants to stay indoors. Anyone I know who follows sports seems to think this is a bad development. Fanatics garment quality is poor, I don't have any faith this deal and this company is good for fans.
posted by elkevelvet at 8:42 AM on August 11, 2023

They tell us to vote with our dollars, but they keep taking anything we want to vote for off the ballot.
posted by saturday_morning at 9:52 AM on August 11, 2023 [6 favorites]

The situation is ripe for some 'Fanaddicts' parody accounts and webpages.
posted by jamjam at 1:52 PM on August 11, 2023

Man, I remember Fantatics from 2010. My family is really into college sports and in general if a kid needed a shirt for a game we'd go to a local Wal-Mart a few days before... but that only worked if the team was local. But people move and there are way fewer Ohio State shirts in the Smyrna TN Wal-Mart than you'd hope but Fanatics was cheap, and it shipped. Were their shirts ill-fitting garbage, similar in quality to the crafting t-shirts at a Michaels? Yes. But they were cheap, and they shipped.

It's pretty clear the business strategy is spend money to 'become the default option' and make money by 'offering an inferior product at un-competitive prices.' It makes sense, because it works (ahem EA video games, Ticketmaster ). But it means people like me don't participate in that market and people who are bigger die-hards get bilked. It seems exactly like the kind of thing where anti-monopoly regulation would serve lower income consumers and smaller competitors... y'know... aka the base of the anti-regulation political party?
posted by midmarch snowman at 8:03 AM on August 13, 2023