With more sports fans than the entire population of North America, it’s easy to see the business appeal of China.

Fanatics is taking its booming licensed sports merchandise business to China. Sources close to the deal say Fanatics expects the joint venture business alone to be over $1 billion in China. Fanatics China, launched in partnership with Asia-focused investor Hillhouse Capital, will be based in Shanghai.

“The interest overall in the country around European football, and American sports, is growing,” Zohar Ravid, Fanatics’ head of international corporate development, told Reuters.

The increasingly sports-obsessed country of 1.4 billion presents a massive opportunity:

• China has an estimated 500 million NBA fans.
• At least 104 million people in the country had at least one fitness app in 2019, and the sportswear market was projected to reach $48 billion in 2020.
• Nike’s 2020 Q3 revenue in China increased 24% to $2.3 billion. 

Rumors are buzzing that Fanatics could go public soon. It was valued at $6.2 billion, up 38% from its previous valuation, on a $350 million Series E funding round last August. Major League Baseball and the NFL invested a total of $150 million in the company in 2017.

“While an IPO is clearly an available path to us, there is no update on any timeline,” said a Fanatics spokesperson. “Our focus remains on building a great global company and strengthening our vertical commerce business model.”

Hillhouse, a 50% partner in Fanatics China, intends to foster connections with e-commerce giants like Tencent and Alibaba.

“The local expertise is really, really why we’re relying on Hillhouse,” said Ravid.

On March 4, CBS All Access officially becomes Paramount+, and the rebranded platform plans to make further inroads into live sports.

Just a month after NBCUniversal announced plans to transfer all NBC Sports Network content to USA and Peacock, ViacomCBS revealed its own streaming goals: Paramount+ will host over 1,000 live sporting events including the NFL, Masters, PGA Tour, NCAA, NWSL, SEC, and more.

ViacomCBS wants to capitalize on soccer most. CBS All Access already has U.S. rights to UEFA, home of the Champions League and Europa League. It’s also acquired rights to CONCACAF’s men’s and women’s Nations League tournaments, as well as the Argentine and Brazilian men’s leagues.

“We are making soccer a core pillar of sports, exclusively available on Paramount+,” said George Cheeks, CEO at CBS. 

ViacomCBS reported Wednesday that streaming subscribers grew to 30 million in Q4 and that revenue increased 3% year-over-year. Accelerated domestic streaming and digital video revenue grew 72% year-over-year.

Over the next four years, ViacomCBS will increase spending on streaming to $5 billion and expects Paramount+ to draw 65-75 million subscribers.

What do Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Barcelona FC forward Antoine Griezmann, and Gary Vaynerchuk have in common?

They’re all part of soccer fantasy marketplace Sorare’s push for capital. The blockchain-based digital collectible firm raised $50 million during a Series A funding round. 

Sorare, as envisioned by co-founder and CEO Nicolas Julia, is “a digital experience where football fans collect, trade, and connect with the beautiful game in a whole new way” — like managing a virtual team with digital cards. 

The round was led by venture capital firm Benchmark, which previously made early investments in eBay, Uber, Twitter, and Instagram. VC firm Accel also participated. 

The funding will aid Sorare in developing and launching a mobile app, and help the company reach its goal of getting the world’s 20 best soccer leagues on the platform.

Digital marketplaces are a hot commodity. NBA Top Shot has seen over $144 million in sales in the last week. A one-of-one piece by digital artist Beeple resold on trading platform Nifty Gateway for $6.6 million today.

Sorare has processed $4.2 million in digital trading cards so far, including a Cristiano Ronaldo card that went for $102,000.