Fanatics enters Middle East, opens office in Qatar

US digital sports platform Fanatics has entered the Middle East, opening a new office in Doha, Qatar, which will serve as a “hub for operations” in the region. The move comes on the back of the company signing a partnership with the State of Qatar in February, which included the country’s sponsorship of Fanatics Fest.

It builds on Fanatics’ ongoing expansion into regions where it sees opportunities to partner with “transformative global sports properties looking to grow their businesses”. Such efforts have been targeted towards Latin America, Italy and the UK over the past few years, the latter to soon house a Fanatics flagship store focused on trading cards.

In a statement, Tucker Kain, chief strategy and growth officer at the company, said that as it expands its portfolio, it was “crucial we identify emerging markets where there is a real opportunity to amplify the engagement and passion around sports and collecting”. “We’ve researched and analysed the sports landscape across the Middle East for quite a while and are excited about what local Fanatics operations can bring to the region,” he added.

Fanatics Fest, held between June 20 to 22 in New York City, doubled down on the company’s commitment to live events while simultaneously serving as a means for Qatar to “strengthen its alignment with the global sports community”. For the country’s director of the government communications office, Sheikh Jassim bin Mansour bin Jabor Al Thani, Fanatics’ wider partnership positions the country “at the forefront of the digital sports development globally”.