Fanatics Collectibles has become a trading card leader in North America, with card manufacturing, league exclusives, a marketplace, and a streaming platform.
The next step is international and growing the brand name across the world.
Fanatics Live, the live commerce division for Fanatics, announced on Wednesday that it acquired Voggt, a European live-streaming platform for collectibles. Voggt, founded in 2021, has been home to card dealers selling and flipping cards in mostly France and Germany.
The European market has seen growth in card collecting over the last couple of years. New card shows have emerged, brick-and-mortar stores have opened, and there have been Europe-exclusive card releases.
While the European market hasn’t hit the heights of the U.S. card market, it represents plenty of opportunity.
“Our acquisition of Voggt fundamentally accelerates our ambitions in Europe,” Fanatics Collect President Chris Lamontagne told Collectibles on SI. “Collectibles as a category is already globally expanding and now having a localized product with an incredible team on the ground helps make collecting cards truly borderless.”
Voggt’s live-streaming platform has more than 500,000 members, according to Fanatics Collect. It has a large community of TCG dealers with others focused on sports.
Along with the purchase, Fanatics Live also announced it will launch in the UK in 2025. Voggt previously streamed in the UK but pulled back to focus on the European market.
“International is a major part of our strategy of becoming the world’s leading sports platform; alongside our investment in international licenses, we now have the technology platform to drive the best fan experience,” Lamontagne said.
There is competition in Europe and the UK with WhatNot and eBay Live, popular streaming marketplaces in North America.
The strategic purchase allows Fanatics Live to immediately enter the marketplace with an infrastructure already in place. It’s also keeping the Voggt name for now, which helps customers make an easier transition. It’s also keeping all current employees.
“I’m so excited to take the next step in Voggt’s journey by joining Fanatics, one of the fastest-growing and most-exciting companies in sports,” said Quentin Lopes, co-founder and CEO of Voggt. “Together we will bring the best of Fanatics to our passionate community in Europe, building a best-in-class platform that will transform the collectibles space.”
While Fanatics is primarily thought of as a sports company, they’ve recently acquired the global rights for Disney, Pixar and Marvel trading cards and also have the Star Wars license..
Streamers often break more than sports with Pokémon and One Piece being popular products. Fanatics Collect is embracing all sides of collecting and not limiting itself to only sports.
“Our mission is to grow the hobby, we celebrate TCG and Sports Cards collecting and see these behaviors already show up on Fanatics Live,” Lamontagne said. “Voggt has done an awesome job of cultivating TCG communities, and we plan to continue to invest there whilst also growing sports card collecting in these key markets.”
Source link : https://www.si.com/collectibles/news/posts/fanatics-live-acquires-voggt-to-boost-presence-in-europe-s-growing-card-market
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Publish date : 2024-10-04 15:12:31
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