Fanatics has been named exclusive retail partner of the DP World Tour and Ryder Cup Europe, mirroring its July agreement with Premier Padel. VP International Strategy Chris Smith tells SGIE why the whole-stack licensing model is becoming Fanatics’ international template.
Fanatics has been named exclusive retail partner of the DP World Tour and Ryder Cup Europe, taking over a multi-year, end-to-end agreement spanning retail, e-commerce, licensing, wholesale and product design.
The deal makes Fanatics the exclusive operator of the Official DP World Tour Store and the European Ryder Cup Store, and names it exclusive retail partner for the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in Limerick. Fanatics takes over the operation with immediate effect, according to the company.
The agreement also gives Fanatics retail operation at the Amgen Irish Open, Genesis Scottish Open, BMW PGA Championship and Husqvarna British Masters, and licensing rights to new Ryder Cup Europe and DP World Tour product ranges. Golf apparel has been moving from the clubhouse into everyday lifestyle wardrobes.
What sets this announcement apart is a single provision: Fanatics has secured of the on-course outfits worn by Team Europe on select competition days. Golf has no established replica-kit culture. Football does. The new ranges launch next year, ahead of Adare Manor.
SGIE reported in July that Fanatics had been named master licensee for Premier Padel across the same stack: e-commerce, in-venue retail, wholesale, product and memorabilia. We discussed this deal, and Fanatics’ broader international strategy, with Chris Smith, the company’s Vice President, International Growth & Strategy.
A tribal exception
Smith’s starting point is that golf does not normally behave like football, but the Ryder Cup does. “Football’s tribalism is unique in most sports, but the Ryder Cup is an exception in golf,” he said. “It’s the one moment in the sport where fans aren’t just watching a player, they’re behind a team and a shirt, in the same way football fans are.”
Team Europe, in his framing, has built one of the biggest and most passionate fanbases in golf, and that following is the behavior Fanatics is counting on to make the replica range work.
The international gap, by the numbers
Zoom out to where golf sits in Fanatics’ wider business, and the picture is one of substantial room to grow. International commerce makes up around 15 percent of Fanatics’ commerce total business, Smith said, though he described it as one of the company’s fastest-growing areas, citing international sales growth of more than 35 percent since 2024.
He pointed to recent partner announcements with Inter Milan, Juventus, The Football Association, Football Australia, the All Blacks and Max Verstappen as evidence international sport, golf and rugby included, represents Fanatics’ biggest growth opportunity.
“The European Tour have partnered with Fanatics because we can bring full global operating capability to a major global sports property from day one”
A repeatable model
Asked whether the whole-stack structure, retail, e-commerce, licensing, wholesale and product under one roof, is now a standing Fanatics product rather than a one-off, Smith explained the conditions behind it. “What we’re building with the European Tour Group, and with organisations you mention like Premier Padel, is becoming a clear model,” he said. He set out the conditions:
“It works well and succeeds when a sports club, athlete or organisation has real scale, genuine global fan demand, and they are willing to let us operate across the whole fan journey, not just one channel.”
What a rights holder gives up
Pressed on what a governing body gives up by handing the entire retail stack to one company, and whether Fanatics is a route to market or a competitor for existing golf apparel brands, Smith answered with what Fanatics brings rather than what changes for others. “Partnering with Fanatics gets the European Tour the speed, investment and global reach they wouldn’t have alone,” he said, pointing to an existing retail relationship with the R&A across The Open and the AIG Women’s Open.
“We also work with most existing specialist and performance brands across our other 900 partners. Our focus is on the fan and getting the best products to them at the right time.”
Where the model is headed
Fanatics shipped merchandise to fans in more than 190 countries in 2025, and for Paris Saint-Germain and Formula 1 alone, to more than . The single biggest buyer of PSG merchandise in 2025, Smith said, was in Australia, a market that sits outside the club’s own strongest Asian fan bases: SGIE reported in January that PSG’s largest social media following in Asia is in Indonesia, ahead of China.
The gap points to something a global commerce operator can do that a club’s own channels typically can’t: reach and convert fans wherever they are, independent of where a following is most visibly concentrated. The whole-stack model is now Fanatics’ clearest template for international growth, and Smith expects it to keep extending to new partners. In his words:
“This deal shows the model, and where we find the right partners, we’ll keep building it out globally.”
