European football league LaLiga launched its first online retail shop with Fanatics as part of a wide-ranging omnichannel retail and manufacturing partnership.
The LaLiga online store will launch globally this summer, before the soccer season, offering officially licensed shirts, training gear and accessories from LaLiga and many of the league’s leading teams. The merchandise will expand to include clubs from both LaLiga divisions, marking the most extensive assortment of LaLiga fan merchandise.
Fanatics will also become a master licensee for LaLiga consumer products, using its global infrastructure and in-house manufacturing to create and distribute a range of fashion-forward clothing for the on-line LaLiga store’s launch.
The long-term deal marks Fanatics’ first league-wide partnership in European football, bringing the model used by U.S. sports leagues to fans of Spanish football. The deal includes e-commerce, licensing, product manufacturing, event retail, and an opportunity to open an official La Liga high-street retail store.
The LaLiga online store runs off of Fanatics’ Cloud Commerce Platform (CCP), which is used by more than 900 sports organizations worldwide, including Manchester United, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, The FA, UEFA, French Football Federation (FFF), NFL, NBA, NHL, and Formula One.
Óscar Mayo, executive director of LaLiga, said: “This partnership with Fanatics will bring us even closer to the millions of fans that LaLiga has around the world and allows us to continue to expand our business ecosystem, taking the fan experience to the next level.”
Matthew Primack, SVP of international business affairs and development at Fanatics, said: “This launch marks a major milestone for Fanatics with LaLiga becoming our first European football league partnership. We are confident that what we will be offering fans, alongside LaLiga, will break new ground by bringing existing fans to the home of the league and global fans to an official collective destination.
“Our extensive experience as the official retail and merchandising partner to the major U.S. sports leagues and many of the world’s leading club and international football teams made this the natural next step in our continued journey to better serve sport and build a leading global digital sports platform,” concluded Primack.
Photo courtesy LaLiga
