World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has signed a new long-term licensing partnership with global retail sporting brand, Fanatics, covering WWE licensed products across ecommerce, merchandising, trading cards and NFTs.

As part of the deal, Fanatics is set to launch a WWE Shop ecommerce platform to house collaborative content across the Fanatics Commerce, Fanatics Collectibles, and Candy Digital NFT arms of the business.

Candy Digital will launch a new range of WWE NFT card collectibles through the deal, with trading card firm, Topps, who Fanatics recently acquired, to deliver exclusive WWE trading cards once the sporting organisation’s existing trading card licensing deal ends.

Fanatics founder and executive chairman, Michael Rubin, said the partnership signals the strength of the broad Fanatics offering, providing extensive multi-platform reach for sporting organisations.

“WWE is one of the most widely admired sports and entertainment properties worldwide, and it made perfect sense to activate many parts of our Fanatics global platform to create a first-of-its-kind, all-in fan experience,” Rubin said.

“From ecommerce and licensed merchandise to trading cards and more, we’re going to offer up an incredible set of capabilities to help WWE’s passionate fans worldwide celebrate their favourite superstars, marquee events and the WWE brand overall,” he said.

WWE chairman and CEO, Vince McMahon, said the pair will also collaborate on exclusive merchandising opportunities based on big moments in the sport as they happen.

“We believe this multi-platform partnership will set a new standard for WWE ecommerce, apparel and merchandise, while providing our fans globally with more ways than ever to engage with WWE and our superstars,” McMahon said.

The deal with Fanatics sees the WWE extend its recent efforts in the lead up to WrestleMania 38 on 2-3 April, as the organisation recently partnered with Snap’s Arcadia creative studio to bring a new augmented reality lens for the event.

The augmented reality lens will feature a 3D model of WWE athlete, Roman Reigns, out of a billboard to be unveiled at fan merchandise store, WrestleMania Superstore Axxess S in Dallas, Texas, before the opening day of WrestleMania.

Snap head of sports partnerships, Anmol Malhotra, said: “We’re thrilled to have WWE utilising several of our offerings, including AR and Spotlight, during one of the biggest sporting events of the year.”

“We can’t wait for WWE to deliver Snapchatters the ultimate fan experience around WrestleMania and see the creativity of our community on full display,” Malhotra said.