USC star Juju Watkins made history on Friday, becoming the first women’s collegiate athlete to sign an exclusive multiyear deal with Fanatics & Fanatics Collectibles.
Watkins, who isn’t eligible to enter the WNBA draft until 2027, is currently averaging 24.6pts/6.9reb/3.5ast/2.2stl/1.9blk per game in her sophomore season for the Trojans. The 19 year old will now be eligible to be featured in products such as Topps, Bowman, and other brands which fall under the Fanatics umbrella.
Because of the deal, Fanatics products can now feature game worn jersey cards, autographs, memorabilia and more. While financial terms weren’t immediately made public, Fanatics did make mention that the deal “will continue into the next level of [Watkins’] career”.
The reason that is notable is because card manufacturer Panini currently holds the WNBA trading card license. Which means that when Watkins turns pro, Watkins autograph will be notably absent from most major releases from the Italian manufacturer.
Fanatics already owns the licenses to MLB, and NFL products, with it being widely speculated that they’ll acquire the NBA rights following this season. That leaves just the NHL (Upper Deck) and WNBA (Panini) amongst the major sports leagues which Fanatics doesn’t have an exclusive licensing deal with.
With Watkins in the midst of a National Player of the Year level season, and Fanatics now being able to display the Trojans logo alongside her signature, it’s not unreasonable to expect some record setting sales figures in the teenager’s future on the secondary market. As it stands, the current record for a public sale of a Watkins card is $5,000.
Photo: Spatms. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.