WWE Expands Relationship With Fanatics For Global Merchandise Operations

WWE has announced in a press release that they have expanded their existing partnership with Fanatics, which will see the e-commerce giant take over the retail experience at the promotion's events around the globe, starting on May 6 for the Backlash premium live event at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The enhanced agreement will see Fanatics work with "world-class teams at WWE" who ran the organization's event retail trade in-house for many years.

Alex Varga, WWE Senior Vice President, Head of Corporate Development said, "Fanatics has been an amazing partner and will immediately bolster WWE's event retail business." Fanatics' Commerce Chief Strategic Retail Officer Molly Adams added, "The WWE has built one of the most incredible global events portfolios across sports and entertainment, and we're honored that they've tapped Fanatics to build on our overarching partnership together."

WWE and Fanatics initially announced that they had teamed up in March 2022. When the details were disclosed, it was revealed that the long-term partnership would involve using Fanatics' developed digital sports platform to build a "new, enhanced experience for WWE fans across several businesses, including e-commerce, licensed merchandise, and physical, digital, and NFT trading cards." A recent report from Fightful Select suggested that the agreement had been a success and that Fanatics were delighted with how well WWE merchandise had been selling. The newly expanded agreement arrives after WWE, who recently merged with UFC under the Endeavor umbrella, saw record-breaking merchandise sales at WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles, California.