Enthusiasts introduced the first credit card in partnership with American Express
A detailed view of the LED board displaying the Fanatics logo during the first half of the game between the Houston Dash and Denver Summit FC at Shell Energy Stadium on May 9, 2026 in Houston, Texas.
Maria Lysaker | Good | Getty Images
Fanatics plans to launch its first credit card later this year, and expand the growing number of points of contact the sports giant has with fans.
The new card, which will be launched in the American Express network in the US, will allow fans to earn FanCash, Fanatics’ digital reward currency, which can be used for apparel, tickets, trading cards, collections and other experiences. It will serve as a further expansion of the Fanatics loyalty program, called Fanatics ONE, which launched last year and now has more than 30 million users. Cardholders will get more benefits and a higher level of status in the program.
“The continued growth of our businesses and our platform as a whole is that we’ve grown so meaningfully that we’re now starting to see enough scale and integration across all the different businesses that a loyalty and cash program is really useful and engaging with fans on a massive scale,” said Tucker Kain, Fanatics’ chief strategy and growth officer. “The credit card will be another tool for sports fans that doesn’t really exist today, giving them rewards for everything they do from a fandom perspective, and really being able to put that back into your enjoyment of your team, player or league you follow.”
Kain said Fanatics, which has made the CNBC Disruptor 50 list three times, is on track to spend more than $1 billion of its FanCash this year, and expects that about 97% will be redeemed by fans. The money can be earned from Fanatics’ growing number of business lines, which include sports merchandise, collectibles, and trading cards, as well as its sports book operations. Fanatics also introduced prediction markets last year.
Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin said on CNBC earlier this month that the company will reach $14 billion in revenue this year. By comparison, the company had an estimated $8 billion in revenue by 2024, according to a previous CNBC report.
Kain said that while the company’s retail business continues to grow, Fanatics is seeing good momentum in its collectibles business. Driven by its 2022 acquisition of trading card company Topps, Fanatics has secured recent deals with the NFL, NBA and FIFA regarding collectibles and trading cards. Rubin said on CNBC that the Fanatics collection business is on track to generate about $5 billion in revenue this year.
The company also sees a growing opportunity in terms of partnering with brands interested in reaching sports fans across Fanatics’ platforms and physical presence, including its fan festival, Fanatics Fest. Earlier this year, Fanatics signed a partnership with them AT&T aimed at reaching fans in different ways.
Among the US American Express cardholders, about 80% identify as sports fans, said Elizabeth Rutledge, chief marketing officer at American Express. This is one of the reasons why the financial services company has signed a partnership with Fanatics to be the official payments partner in selected retail and online locations around the world, as well as the presenting sponsor of Fanatics Fest.
“Our card members love sports … this partnership really deepens that,” Rutledge said, adding that Amex now has relationships with more than 50 leagues, teams, venues and events, including a new partnership with the NFL that sees it become the league’s official payments partner, instead of a Visa competitor. “We want to be where our card members are,” he said.
Rutledge said the overlap between the sports fans that Amex reaches through its existing sponsorships and the 100 million people in the Fanatics ecosystem highlights “the connection across the board.”
“For us, in partnership with leagues such as the NFL, NBA, WNBA and Formula 1, this is a place where fans will find apparel and merchandise for their favorite team,” he said.
American Express will also add the Fanatics credit card as one of its transfer partners, allowing US Amex rewards members to convert their rewards into FanCash.
However, although the Fanatics card will be part of the American Express Network, the card will be issued by First Electronic Bank and managed by Imprint. Co-branded cards from companies like Delta and Marriott, for example, are issued and managed directly by American Express.
Cain said all of these efforts are changing “what it means to be a sports fan on a scale.”
“The way we are going is to connect the experience of fans across teams, leagues, sports and interests in general,” he said. “That gives us the ability to partner with brands that care about sports fans, and deepen and drive a better experience for sports fans.”
