FanCode Sets the Stage for Sports Merchandising and Licensing

The Dream Sports-owned sports streaming platform FanCode is all set to seize the opportunity of upcoming mega sporting events in the country. FanCode is poised for collaborations with multiple IPL franchises to establish their own mega-store destinations across the nation. In addition to collaborating with Rajasthan Royals, Punjab Kings, and Kolkata Knight Riders, FanCode will also collaborate with more IPL franchises this year.

Since its inception, FanCode Shop, the merchandising arm of FanCode, has partnered with the biggest names in the sports and fitness segment, including the ICC, FIFA, NBA, Manchester City FC, Liverpool FC, FC Barcelona, Bengaluru FC, MotoGP, WWE, SG, Nivia, BDM, Elevar, FILA, and Proline.

Growth of Merchandising and Licensing

Dream Sports, India’s leading Sports Technology company, is the parent company of FanCode, with brands such as Dream11, Dream Capital, and DreamSetGo in its portfolio. Elaborating on the merchandising business, Yannick Colaco, Co-Founder and CEO, said, “We are home to over 100 million sports fans following different sports and cheering for their favorite teams & players. With sports fandom continuously growing in the country, and fans wanting to showcase their fandom, I expect merchandising and licensing to grow.”

Colaco further stated, “It’s also one of the reasons we have backed our commerce arm - FanCode Shop and focused on its growth in the last 12-15 months. However, our primary focus is on developing a top-class product and ensuring it delivers value to Indian sports fans.”

Collaborating with More IPL Franchises

The licensed sports merchandising market in India has been witnessing steady growth. The size of the global market for licensed sports memorabilia was estimated at USD 33.48 billion in 2022, and it is anticipated to increase at a CAGR of 4.9 percent from 2023 to 2030. FanCode Shop will lend its expertise towards building and managing an exclusive digital store for the IPL franchises, including end-to-end product and customer experience, manufacturing, logistics, customer care, and marketing.

Colaco said, “The World Cup was a key event for us last year, and the response that we got was encouraging. Since then, we have also obtained official licensing rights for major football clubs - FC Barcelona, Man City, PSG, Juventus. We have also signed a merchandise deal with Mumbai City FC to produce fan merchandise and accessories for them.”

Expansion Plans

Elaborating on merchandising expansion plans, Colaco said, “As we approach the IPL, you will hear from us on collaborations with teams in building their own Mega Store destinations. We have already signed multi-year deals with Rajasthan Royals, Punjab Kings, and Kolkata Knight Riders and are in the process of closing similar deals with a few other IPL franchises as well.”

Elaborating on the Mega Store concept, Colaco said, “Our merchandise partnership with ICC was something that worked really well for us. The fact that the World Cup was in India and the Indian team had a great tournament was helpful. The concept of the Mega Stores as well, which we introduced during the IPL, saw a positive response from both the fans as well as the franchises. Mega Stores leverage FanCode Shop's sports commerce and tech capabilities to curate a connected and seamless experience for fans to purchase licensed merchandise of their favorite teams.”

Talking about FanCode’s business growth as a platform, Colaco said, “We’ve grown our user base by 5 times in the last three years and are looking to double our subscriber base this year. There are some 600 million sports fans in India, out of which around 136 million are avid sports fans - we will continue working to attract these fans by providing them with content that is relevant to them. We are also looking at non-LIVE content and working with sports content creators.”