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Marketing and Sponsorship

NFLPA Grants Panini Exclusive Trading Card License, Continuing One-Partner Trend

NFL Players Inc. and Panini America announced Thursday that they have entered into an exclusive long-term agreement that will make Panini America the sole manufacturer of NFLPA-licensed trading cards and collectible stickers, beginning with the '16 NFL season. Panini has exclusive deals with NFLPI, NBA and FIFA World Cup (NFLPA). ESPN.com's Darren Rovell noted the deal will "further consolidate the sports card market." Topps currently is "the sole licensee" of MLB cards, and Upper Deck "maintains exclusive rights to NHL trading cards." Panini America CEO Mark Warsop said that he "believes the football card market topped the baseball card market for the first time" in '12 and "will do so again" in '14. Panini and Topps under the previous deal with the NFL were "allowed to have 17 releases a year." Warsop said that the new exclusive deal "would allow them to expand their number of offerings as well as participate in out-of-the-box ideas that the company couldn't do in a competitive environment." Warsop: "I want to get kids back to collecting sets again. And if that means that we could have a product whose packs sell for 50 cents, and make no money on it, to grow the category, we can now do that." NFLPI President Keith Gordon said that the time "was right to go down to one partner." Gordon: "We're the last of the leagues to do this and we feel like, after a correction from consolidation, the business will grow" (ESPN.com, 7/31). See the full business portfolio of Panini America at Resource Guide LIVE.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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