Fanatics Live has acquired the assets of European live-commerce platform Voggt as the company makes an aggressive push into the international live-selling market.
Founded in 2021, the Paris-based Voggt, with more than 500,000 members, has become a market leader across Europe with a focus on Pokemon and other TCG categories.
The deal was announced Thursday morning, and terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
First launched in 2023, Fanatics Live currently operates exclusively in the United States behind a number of popular sports card breakers. Fanatics Live plans to launch in the United Kingdom in 2025, and according to Fanatics Collect president Chris Lamontange, Voggt will help Fanatics add the best breakers in Europe to its roster.
“One of the things that this allows us to do is work on the ground with breakers in those specific markets — France, Germany, UK and build real, meaningful relationships,” Lamontange told cllct. “One of the things that we’ve been really resolute about on Live since the beginning was we don’t want to open the platform up to everybody … this acquisition brings us that opportunity to bring on more high-value, high-quality partners and cultivate it.”
For Voggt, the partnership with Fanatics helps deliver the best brands in the world to the platform. Along with the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball, Fanatics recently added a trading card deal with the Premier League — a deal David Leiner, Fanatics Collectibles’ president of trading cards, told cllct in May was a “crown jewel” brand.
Having access to those relationships could help Voggt expand an already-strong foothold.
“I saw that combining these ambitions, with our team on the ground here in Europe with the firepower of Fanatics supporting us here to reach the next step, that could be the game-changing opportunity,” Voggt co-founder and CEO Quentin Lopes told cllct. “When they bring an opportunity like that to the table, as a founder, I just don’t want to miss it.”
In addition to helping Fanatics Live add a number of international breakers to the platform, the acquisition of Voggt gives the company a direct path to reach a growing number of card collectors across Europe — a passionate community that feels it has been too difficult to collect.
The deal also helps Fanatics Live match the international success of its biggest live-selling competitor, Whatnot, which currently operates in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.
“One thing that we really are excited by is this idea of a borderless, global ecosystem for the hobby,” Lamontagne said. “Right now that’s not necessarily the case — to be able to be a collector in France and collect sports cards from the US. There’s quite a high barrier of friction.”
According to Fanatics, the acquisition of Voggt’s assets are immediate, with all Voggt employees remaining based in their current locations. The Voggt platform name will be unchanged.
Prior to the acquisition, Voggt last raised $15.3 million in funding in Aug. 2022.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct.