Panini America is losing their sports cards license, what now?

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As you might know, Panini America is losing their exclusive NFL license, handing it over instead to their long time rival and competitor, Topps. Topps entered the market around the 1950s, starting out with collegiate cards, and circled to make colorful cards centered around the NFL’s best players. At first, people just wanted to collect their favorite players and wanted to eat the gum and candy that existed in the earlier trading card packs, but when they started to include autographs from the league's best players, nearly 40 years later, the trading card market really started to take off. Around 2009, Panini saw how successful the card business was, and sought to enter the competition with their creation of brands like Score, Leaf, Classics, and their highly sought after product, Prizm. After some time, Panini finally secured exclusive NFL rights in 2016.

So why is this change happening?

This change might be due to the Fanatics takeover. Fanatics is a well known business that started in 1995 as a brick and mortar sports merchandise store. It quickly gained popularity when a digital giant called Michael Rubin bought it in 2011, and turned it into a dominating company. Michael further kick started the business by buying Topps, and sports licenses, and making various sports betting platforms. Despite the lawsuit attempts by Panini for “antitrust violations” Fanatics has held strong, even countersuing Panini for “unfair competition, tortious interference and breach of good faith.” Sports leagues clearly desire Fanatics as a partner, as Fanatics obtained NBA, NBPA, MLB, MLBPA, the NFL and the NFLPA licenses. Panini was left to scramble due to most of their previous licenses being terminated in favor of Fanatics. As one of Panini’s main products are NFL trading cards, they scrambled to keep the license, eventually settling for the license expiring in April.

What would happen to Panini?

Panini has been left in a difficult place, with their previously solid position in the sports card industry crumbling away. If this change does happen, (which it very well might due to them losing the NBA license in fall of 2025) Panini will be in a similar position to where Topps was before acquiring the licenses. Before acquiring the license, Topps was in a very difficult situation, making unlicensed cards and only staying relevant with producing autograph cards of the top rookies and the Tom Brady 1/1 autographed card. This may be where Panini is left, making unlicensed cards with some desperate attempts to stay in the game.

Why does losing these licenses even matter?

Licensed cards have official NFL team logos, specific pictures of the players, and official league logos. While seeming insignificant, these cards can sell for much less, and even autographs can sell for less, showing in Leaf where autographs can be half the price of licensed autographs. In the long term, unlicensed cards are more likely to sell for less, and therefore it is worth a lot less to get a good autograph in the unlicensed products.

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Sources

McCann, Michael. “Fanatics, Panini Legal Battle Continues as Judge Nixes Dismissals.” Sportico.Com, Sportico.com, 10 Mar. 2025, www.sportico.com/law/analysis/2025/fanatics-panini-cases-continue-1234842531/.

“Panini-Fanatics Legal Battle Could Have Lasting Effects on Trading Card Industry.” Sports Business Journal, Sports Business Journal, 11 Sept. 2025, www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/09/11/panini-fanatics-legal-battle-could-have-lasting-effects-on-trading-card-industry/.

Kinmartin, Scott. “The Future of Panini Cards: What’s next for the Panini License?” The SportsRoom, The SportsRoom, 4 Sept. 2024, thesportsroomllc.com/blogs/news/the-future-of-panini-cards-what-s-next-for-the-panini-license?srsltid=AfmBOopaQZsI3LM97cONq4-dfuv58U673pBrwcdMQ_hXrOHv6mXm-Hgd.

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Noah Lewis is a 10th grader at the white and blue school of Poudre high school. This is his first year in Poudre Press. He is also an avid wrestler, who wrestles year round. Other hobbies he enjoys include mountain biking, collecting sports memorabilia/cards, camping, and playing video games.