Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin Discusses Growth, Future Strategy, and Fan Experience

Since founding Fanatics in 2011, Michael Rubin has built the company from a small online retailer of sports merchandise and apparel into a massive global sports platform.

Not only is Fanatics by far the largest player in sports apparel, with deals with nearly every major league on the planet, but it also now has a substantial footprint in collectibles, sports betting, and prediction markets. The company is even launching its own branded credit card this year.

Fanatics' wide net across sports and sports fandom came to life this week at the annual Fanatics Fest, the company's effort to create a Comic Con-style event for sports fans that is now in its third year.

Rubin, speaking with CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin at the CNBC Sport x Boardroom Game Plan Summit on Thursday, held alongside Fanatics Fest in New York City, said that the company expected more than 200,000 people to attend the event over its four-day run.

That is on top of the more than 150 million fans that are now customers of Fanatics somewhere across its various sports-focused businesses, whether that's from buying a jersey, trading cards, or placing a bet.

Rubin, in an appearance on CNBC in May, said that the company will approach $14 billion in revenue this year. By comparison, the company had about $8 billion in total revenue in 2024, according to previous CNBC reporting.

"We believe we have probably the biggest opportunity in sports because it's not like we're in one specific business," Rubin told Sorkin at Game Plan. "I think of us really as a platform that gives a digital sports fan everything they want."

Fanatics, with its three revenue focuses of merchandise, collectibles, and betting and gaming, "should create the most important company in sports," Rubin said. "We think that could be the most valuable company in sports."

The company's last public funding round was in December 2022, when it raised $700 million, valuing it at $31 billion. The company, which has made the CNBC Disruptor 50 list three times, has been rumored to be interested in going public in recent years, but Rubin said on CNBC last year that "There's no rush to be a public company."

But even with all of that success, Rubin told Sorkin at Game Plan that, "We think there are several opportunities to create new businesses that we're not in, leveraging the relationships we have with customers, with sports properties, with the athletes."

"We think there's a lot of growth for us," Rubin said. "I'd say a decade from now, I bet you we have a few businesses that are equally as important to the three that we have today."

Rubin declined to say what businesses those might be. However, he did say what Fanatics is not pursuing: ticketing and live sports broadcasting.

Ticketing is "a hard business … it's a complicated business; lots of competitors," Rubin said. "The content providers, the teams and artists, keep all the money, which is the way it should be. So that's a business we're never going to get into."

When it comes to becoming a sports broadcasting platform, Rubin said, "There are so many big companies … that's a business where we want to get the popcorn out and watch."

"But there are other businesses that I think we can make it better for the fan," he said. "We can do something different and better for them than what's currently being done."

That strategy is now being driven by two recent situations where Rubin said he and Fanatics "got punched in the face by a couple of things."

The first one was when Fanatics announced it would be making the on-ice jerseys for the NHL starting in the 2024-2025 season. "There were like 10,000 really vocal hockey fans [saying] we don't want you to take over the hockey jersey," he said.

Fanatics faced an even bigger jersey-focused controversy in 2024 when it started to produce a new MLB jersey template in conjunction with Nike. Following significant criticism over the quality and look compared to previous jerseys due to a Nike redesign, the jersey was significantly overhauled.

"That was actually the best thing that has ever happened to me because we got our team together and said, 'Wait a second, what are we going to do about this?'" Rubin said. "We never had a brand purpose, and I always thought it was strategic bullsh-t. [But] that was our time [to say] what's our brand purpose. We said it's to relentlessly enhance the fan experience."

Rubin said, "Five years ago, we take the money. Now, we won't take the money if it's not relentlessly enhancing the fan experience."

"You ask me why I won't get into the ticketing business. Nobody likes the ticketing business, even if you're talking about how you can make billions of dollars a year," he said. "I don't want to be in that business; I want to be in a business where we can celebrate fandom like we're doing here."

Rubin said that moment was "the greatest thing that ever happened to us because it made us really think."

"We don't want to be big; we want to be beloved," Rubin said. "How we be beloved is by relentlessly enhancing the fan experience."