Michael Rubin
Chief executive officer - Fanatics
Michael Rubin, noted internet entrepreneur, philanthropist, and social justice advocate, has built several multibillion-dollar direct-to-consumer companies. Driven by a deep passion for business and a life-long love of sports, Michael is the CEO of Fanatics, a global digital sports platform that is reimagining the fan experience across several verticals, including licensed merchandise, trading cards and collectibles, sports betting and gaming, live commerce, and sports and collector fan events. He previously founded GSI Commerce, which was sold to eBay in 2011 for $2.4B.
In addition to serving as CEO of Fanatics, Michael is also a board member of the Fanatics Charitable Foundation, which is focused on creating positive and lasting change across the global communities in which our employees and fans live, work, and play through a commitment of time and strategic philanthropic engagements. In addition, he serves as co-chair of REFORM Alliance, an organization that includes some of the biggest names in sports, business, and culture that’s dedicated to advancing criminal justice reform and eradicating antiquated probation laws that perpetuate injustice in the United States.
Michael was the driving force behind Fanatics’ partnership with Make-A-Wish, through which the company uses its wide-ranging partner roster and relationships with thousands of athletes to support hundreds of sports-related wishes annually and further enhance the overall experience for kids and their families.
Recognized as one of the most prominent people in sports business, Michael was named the “Sports Business Person of the Year” by The Athletic / New York Times in 2022; recognized by the Sports Business Journal as “Executive of the Year” that same year; and selected by Bleacher Report for its “Power 50” list of most influential people in sports. Under his leadership, Fanatics has also repeatedly earned a spot on Fast Company’s “50 Most Innovative Companies in the World” list; has been named one of the “Best Employers in Sports” (2021-2023) by Front Office Sports; and was awarded the “Business Model of the Decade” (2010-2019) by Sports Business Journal. Michael spent more than a decade as a partner of the Philadelphia 76ers before selling his ownership stake in the team in June 2022 to focus his efforts on Fanatics’ expansion across the broader sports landscape.
EARLY YEARS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Michael grew up in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania and began his ascent as an entrepreneur by selling vegetable seeds door-to-door when he was only eight years old. He would soon add homemade stationery sales and a budding snow-shoveling service to his resume before setting up his own ski-tuning shop in his parents’ basement when he was only 12 years old. Two years later – using $2,500 in bar mitzvah gifts as seed capital and a lease signed by his father – he opened a formal ski shop in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, named Mike’s Ski and Sport.
At age 16 and after a ski season that had no snow, Michael saw sales diminish drastically and found himself in debt. He was able to settle with his creditors using a loan from his father under the condition he attend college. Michael agreed and entered a co-op with his high school, giving him the opportunity to leave school early to run his emerging ski shop enterprise, which had grown into owning and operating five ski shops before he entered college. He attended Villanova for a semester before dropping out after realizing a large gain on an opportunistic transaction: buying $200,000 in overstock equipment at a deep discount with $17,000 borrowed from a friend and re-selling it for $75,000.
GSI COMMERCE ACQUISITION
Using the proceeds from his overstock transaction and after selling his ski shops, he founded the athletic equipment closeout company KPR sports – named after his parents – which bought and sold overstock name brand merchandise. In 1993, the year Michael turned 21, KPR reached $1M in annual sales. Two years later he increased sales to $50M and purchased 40% of the women’s athletic shoe manufacturer Ryka.
In 1998, he created Global Sports, which would later become GSI Commerce, a multibillion-dollar e-commerce company. At 38, Michael sold GSI to eBay for $2.4B reaping a $150M windfall. Since eBay only wanted the order fulfillment business for large retailers to better compete with Amazon, he was able to buy back the consumer businesses of GSI at a fire sale price. He repurchased several brands, including Fanatics, Rue La La ,and ShopRunner. In 2018, Rue La La acquired Gilt Groupe to form Rue Gilt Groupe, the premiere off-price, e-commerce destination that includes RueLaLa.com, Gilt.com and ShopPremiumOutlets.com. In 2020, Michael sold ShopRunner to FedEx.
FANATICS: INNOVATING SPORTS MERCHANDISE
Immediately after repurchasing Fanatics from eBay, Michael set out on a mission to transform the slow, antiquated licensed sports industry. His vision was to first create a differentiated sports merchandise business – known today as Fanatics Commerce - that would bring larger assortments of exclusive, high-quality apparel to fans craving real-time access to gear for their favorite teams and players. Michael accomplished this by pioneering vertical commerce, his first breakthrough innovation.
Through v-commerce, Fanatics has gained exclusivity of highly coveted manufacturing and merchandise rights for professional and collegiate sports. This allows Fanatics to control the end-to-end supply chain and create incredible speed to market of products, benefiting not only customers but the fans that shop with the company’s retail partners.
Over the past several years, Fanatics Commerce has added many category-leading brands under its umbrella, such as Mitchell & Ness and Lids, that together, offer the world’s largest assortment of high-quality, real-time products across the Fanatics network of online and offline shops. And as the business continued to transform the licensed sports merchandise landscape, Michael began plotting his next chapter for the company.
In August 2021, Michael and Fanatics announced plans to evolve into a global digital sports platform, which would combine the existing Commerce business with several new offerings as well as the creation of a new corporate entity, Fanatics Holdings, Inc.
FANATICS: A DIGITAL SPORTS PLATFORM
Michael’s first move to expand beyond Commerce was establishing Fanatics Collectibles and Fanatics Betting and Gaming, two new businesses that would shake the status quo of their respective sectors.
Fanatics Collectibles
The trading card industry had roughly stayed the same for more than 100 years and the hobby was ripe for innovation. Fanatics’ gathering of rights from top leagues and players associations – including MLB, MLBPA, NBA, NBPA, NFL, NFLPA and more - gave the company an incredible opportunity to change the game for collectors. The company’s 2022 acquisition of preeminent hobby brand Topps created a solid infrastructure to build the business around and has allowed Fanatics Collectibles to bring a jolt of energy to product marketing and innovation that has not been felt in the hobby before.
Fanatics Live
After a successful integration of the Topps business, the Collectibles team saw an opportunity to further expand its offerings and made the move into live shopping. Fanatics Live launched in 2023 and is focused on transforming the digital shopping experience through personality-driven content and entertainment, including trading card “breaks,” limited edition merchandise and collectibles drops, and on-location streams. With the addition of trading card marketplace PWCC later that year, Fanatics Collectibles gained another pivotal piece in becoming the one-stop shop for all a collector’s needs.
Fanatics Betting & Gaming
By utilizing Fanatics’ database of more than 100 million fans as its starting point, Fanatics Betting and Gaming launched in 2022, offering fans both an online and retail sportsbook experience. After completing the acquisition of the U.S. operations for PointsBet in 2024, the business has amassed a portfolio of offerings available in nearly 20 sports betting states, with more on the way. The new platform, called Fanatics Sportsbook, taps into the Fanatics’ platform to create a truly rewarding experience for fans. This includes delivering increased value to sports fans by rewarding them with team merchandise, collectibles, one-of-a-kind perks, and exclusive sports experiences for select bets placed on the platform.
Fanatics Events
The latest addition to the Fanatics platform is Fanatics Events. Announced in 2023, the business aims to build the largest and most exciting network of sports and collector fan events around the world. Created in partnership with IMG, at Fanatics Events, fans will have the opportunity to come together in person to celebrate all aspects of fandom – collectibles, memorabilia, fashion, music, and entertainment – and partake in truly unique experiences that only Fanatics can deliver.
Making an impact in our communities
Leading Voice for Social Change
Michael's life changed on November 6, 2017, while attending a technical violation hearing for his good friend, recording artist Meek Mill. Despite Meek’s probation officer and the Assistant District Attorney both recommending no prison time, Michael was stunned to witness the judge sentence Meek to 2-4 years in prison.
Michael’s witnessing of the systemic problems in the criminal justice system would become the impetus for creating the REFORM Alliance, setting the course for his lifelong commitment to social activism. On January 23, 2019, Michael and Meek teamed up with a world-class group of philanthropists and activists—including Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter, Laura Arnold, Robert Kraft, and Robert F. Smith—to launch REFORM, which a goal of transforming probation and parole by changing laws, systems, and culture.
Since its founding, REFORM has passed 18 bills in 11 states, creating a pathway for 800,000 people to exit the supervision system and into stability and work. Further, first-of-its-kind job fairs have connected more than 6,000 system-impacted people with work opportunities and record expungement services. REFORM has also awarded more than 50 community grants to local organizations focused on youth violence prevention, job training, and supporting people returning home from incarceration and families impacted by the justice system.
FANATICS MAKE-A-WISH: Changing the Game for Critically Ill Kids
One of the organizations that both Michael and Fanatics have long supported and championed is Make-A-Wish. Michael, having personally seen the impact wishes can have on kids and their families, knew that Fanatics should and could be doing more to support the hundreds of sports-related wishes that are granted in the U.S. each year.
In October 2023, Fanatics formalized this relationship by enacting a first-of-its kind partnership to become the official sports partner of Make-A-Wish America. The partnership allows Fanatics to extend its incredible resources - nearly 900 professional and collegiate sports partners and more than 2,500 athlete relationships - to elevate sports wishes of all kinds, including athlete meet and greets, and attending games and special events such as the NFL Super Bowl, MLB All-Star Game, NHL Winter Classic, and NBA All-Star Game.
In addition to supporting wish granting, the Fanatics Charitable Foundation made a $10M contribution to bolster the partnership for the next several years. Since kicking things off in the fall of 2023, Fanatics has already supported more than 100 wishes.
ALL IN CHALLENGE
Michael was the architect of the viral ALL IN Challenge. Launched in April 2020, it became one of the largest digital fundraisers ever, raising more than $60M to feed those impacted by the global pandemic.
Rubin and Fanatics teamed up with hundreds of the biggest athletes, entertainers, leagues, teams, owners, and corporations, all who donated incredible prized possessions and created once-in-a-lifetime experiences made available as online auctions or sweepstakes. From playing golf at Pebble Beach with Justin Timberlake and Bill Murray, to throwing out the first pitch at the World Series, to winning Robert Kraft’s Super Bowl LIII ring, and spending a weekend in Tampa with Tom Brady. More than one million fans worldwide donated, and the program elicited contributions from Patrick Mahomes, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Kevin Durant, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Meek Mill, Ellen DeGeneres, Ariana Grande, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, and many others.
MERCH MADNESS
Michael, always looking to push the boundaries of what’s possible, also initiated Fanatics Merch Madness – a one-time event that took place during Fanatics’ 2023 Global Volunteer Day. Throughout the day more than 300,000 pieces of licensed apparel valued at around $20M were donated to 100,000 underserved youth and their families in nearly 100 different locations across the country: a combination of jerseys, t-shirts, hoodies, hats, jackets and more. Many athlete and celebrity friends of Fanatics jumped in to make the day extra special, including Tom Brady, Eli Manning, Meek Mill, Lil’ Baby, Donovan Mitchell, A$AP Ferg, DJ Khaled, Joel Embiid, Chirs Paul, Micah Parsons, Robert and Jonathan Kraft, and many more.