World Rugby has announced an exclusive global partnership with Fanatics to launch and manage the official retail and licensing programme for World Rugby, including Rugby World Cups through to 2029. Fanatics will create, curate and manage the e-commerce, in-venue, wholesale, memorabilia and licensing program for the sport’s biggest events. These will include two women’s Rugby World Cups - England 2025 and Australia 2029 - and the 2027 men’s Rugby World Cup in Australia.
Fanatics is on the move in international partnerships. Together with Lulemon, they have also become the new fan apparel partner with the NHL.
The online store will operate on Fanatics’ Cloud Commerce Platform (CCP), seamlessly integrating with World Rugby’s digital channels, including events, ticketing, and content, to create a unified rugby retail destination. The agreement indeed represents the governing body’s ambition to align World Rugby’s events and products “under a single always on destination for fans,” said the organization.
World Rugby and Fanatics will work together to achieve the ambitions set-out in the organization’s Environmental Sustainability Plan 2030 by using recyclable packing for merchandise distributed by Fanatics, minimising single use plastic and tracking greenhouse gas emissions from operations.
