THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Fanatics Hits $31 Billion Valuation in Latest Funding Round

Fanatics Inc. has raised about $700 million from a group of investors, pushing the sports-merchandising company’s valuation to $31 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

About two-thirds of the new money came from parties that hadn’t previously invested in the company, including private-equity firm Clearlake Capital Group LP, which led the round, and investment and merchant-banking firm LionTree LLC, the people said. Prior Fanatics investors such as Silver Lake, Fidelity Management & Research Co. and SoftBank Group Corp. were also among the participants, they said.

Proceeds from the investment, which comes in the form of common stock, will be set aside for strategic M&A, the people said. The goal is to help Fanatics grow across its divisions, including its soon-to-be launched sports-betting and gaming business, and won’t be used to fund its day-to-day operations, they said…