Holding All the Cards

Interest in trading card collecting — which, like many hobbies, was rejuvenated during the pandemic lockdowns — is still going strong, with consumer sales of cards on both the primary and secondary markets on the rise. As a result, sports and entertainment properties continue to actively forge agreements in the category. Following are some of the key current trends in this market, illustrated with examples of deals from this year: 

• Fanatics consolidates its hold on sports cards. Fanatics, a relatively new player in the trading card space that now owns the Bowman and Topps brands, has signed two major agreements this year, with FIFA and the NFL, the latter returning to Topps after a 10-year hiatus. Both had most recently been with Panini. Fanatics has also added trading card rights this year for several national football associations, including Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Argentina, England, and Germany, as well as individual athletes including David Beckham. 
• Women’s sports gain steam. Panini has been a key player in this space, adding the National Women’s Soccer League and the NWSL Players Association, which were formerly with Parkside Collectibles, in March. It also works with the WNBA and its players association, and has signed deals with a number of individual WNBA athletes, including Breanna Stewart in April of this year. Meanwhile, the new Women’s Pro Baseball League paired with sports authentication platform The Realest for collectible trading cards; the company also works with other women’s sports leagues, including the Professional Women’s Hockey League and Unrivaled. 
• Trading card games proliferate. On the entertainment side, the number of licensed examples continues to grow, including branded and co-branded releases as well as games that incorporate a variety characters into the play. New launches range from Bandai’s Naruto game, announced in June and debuting globally next summer, to Spin Master and Universal Products & Experiences’ Hellbreak, a horror trading card game integrating properties from Universal’s catalog along with IPs from other studios. Sports properties are also occasionally in the mix; Hasbro paired with Panini for a trading card game called Monopoly Panini Prizm: FIFA World Cup Game, which integrates soccer cards into Monopoly-style game play. 
• NIL deals multiply. Trading cards have become one of the leading revenue-generators for college athletes in the NIL era. In June, Pathway Sports & Entertainment paired with Panini America to sell college athlete trading cards in the U.S. through Pathway’s student royalty program, with the first to participate being athletes from Notre Dame, Michigan, USC, and Texas Tech, across a variety of sports. In July, Concordia University Irvine paired with Athlete’s Thread, a provider of NIL merchandise, including trading cards, that has partnerships with more than 415 U.S. colleges. And licensed trading card company ONIT, which made trading card sets for 212 teams at 67 Division I colleges in the 2024-2025 school year, is expected to expand after being purchased by private equity firm Seven Seven Six in June. Fanatics is also in the NIL market, as are Leaf, Upper Deck, Wild Card, and others. 
• Secondary-market values skyrocket. High prices on the collector market are helping drive sales of new as well as previously owned products. Some of the athletes setting records for prices in their categories this year have included Shohei Ohtani ($11 million), Lamine Yamal ($707,600), Victor Wembanyana ($1.4 million), Josh Allen ($1.35 million), and Kobe Bryant ($3.15 million). In the entertainment space, a rare Pokémon card owned by wrestler and YouTuber Logan Paul sold in February for $16 million. The high prices have led to a rise in thefts, especially of sports and Pokémon cards, at places like trading card shops and collectors’ conventions.
• Governments are getting involved. The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan plans to found a parliamentary group dedicated to investigating and regulating the country’s growing trading card industry, with a particular focus on the Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh markets. The ever-rising popularity of these long-established franchises has raised concerns about scalping, counterfeiting, and bulk purchasing for resale. Singapore and Indonesia have made similar moves. In the U.S., meanwhile, a Congressman from New York asked the Federal Trade Commission last December to look into Collectors Holdings for anti-trust reasons, after it purchased Beckett Grading Services. It had previously acquired Beckett’s competitors SGC and PSA, leaving it with an 80% share of grading volume and only one independent competitor, Certified Guaranty Company (CGC). The FTC has not launched an investigation yet. 

Many deals in this sector include not only new physical and digital trading cards, but also other collectibles, including signed trading cards and memorabilia, as well as other components.

Aside from the examples cited here to illustrate the broad trends, many other sports and entertainment properties regularly license trading card marketers, both established and start-up, to develop their own programs in this space.