How Michael Rubin and Fanatics turned out to be a perfect match for each other

NEW YORK — Moments after he and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft stood to watch Rob Gronkowski whip left-handed slap shots at a mock hockey goal — Gronk’s next sport? — Lafayette Hill native Michael Rubin dove full bore into the maw of Fanatics Fest attendees, stopping here to sign an autograph, pausing there to be part of a selfie with two men clad in Team USA Basketball gear.

Nearby, a young boy was told by his mother that Rubin was in their midst. The boy shouted, “Michael Rubin is someone I gotta see!”

Over three days at the 3.3 million square-foot Javits Center on Manhattan’s west side, Rubin, the 52-year-old billionaire, Fanatics’ founder and chief executive officer, was often the center of attention during his company’s first open festival. The event showcased the Fanatics brand, drew more than 70,000 people, and boasted a who’s who lineup of Rubin’s star-studded Rolodex: Tom Brady, Peyton and Eli Manning, Allen Iverson, Derek Jeter, Jay-Z, Hulk Hogan, and Kevin Durant, to name a few.

» READ MORE: What we saw at Fanatics Fest, from Gronk’s new sport to Peyton Manning not listing Jalen Hurts among his top QBs

“I didn’t know two weeks ago whether this would be a success or a disaster,” Rubin told The Inquirer during a rare Fanatics Fest break while he stood at the bar of the 40/40 Club, Jay-Z’s since-shuttered Manhattan hot spot that was recreated in full scale at Javits. “I couldn’t wait to have the experience of it. I couldn’t wait to play the game. Maybe this would have been a disaster. You don’t know. I love that quest.”

The snapshot was a long way from Rubin’s suburban Philly teenage days, when he made his first foray into business. It did not exactly go as planned.

While he was 14 and a student at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School, Rubin started Mike’s Ski Shop, a ski tuning business, in his parents’ (Ken and Paulette) basement.

“If I’m being honest, the way it started was being a bad student, and bad athlete, but really loving business,” said Rubin. “You want to be around sports, but I found the place I was good at in sports was the business side of it. I was actually a pretty decent skier. Because I loved skiing, that’s what led me to start a ski tuning shop and the ski business originally.”

» READ MORE: Philly sports-apparel firm Mitchell & Ness has a new owner, a new CEO, and new thoughts about its future

He then branched out and opened no fewer than five ski shops in Pennsylvania and New York before he graduated.

But Mother Nature conspired against Rubin’s nascent business one season and the financial loss put him in a $100,000 hole with creditors. Several lawsuits followed.

“The first couple weeks, I was like, ‘I’m done, I suck. I’m a failure.’ But I just found a way out of it,” said Rubin.

Rubin learned through a bankruptcy attorney that he could not incur debt until he was 18, so he made a deal to pay his creditors $30,000, a sum Rubin’s father Ken loaned him on one condition: that young Michael fulfill his parents’ wish and go to college. Rubin made a promise that he would. Sort of.

Around that same time, Rubin became aware of another ski shop that went belly up, and he made designs to buy the inventory — valued at $100,000 but being liquidated for around $15,000. Rubin didn’t have the money and went back to his father for another ask.

No way, no how, his father said.

Rubin went door to door in his Lafayette Hill neighborhood until he found a financial backer. Rubin paid back the neighbor after he sold the inventory, made a profit, and staked his claim in the closeout business.

“What it taught me is, failure is good,” said Rubin. “Some people are scared to fail.”

He did enroll at Villanova but dropped out after one semester since he was by then making over $100 million.

By 1998, Rubin, then 26, started GSI Commerce, an e-commerce business that included pro sports leagues as some of its clients. GSI handled the back end of e-commerce, which included running league/business websites, merchandising, digital marketing, and shipping products. One of the companies Rubin bought along the way was a Florida-based enterprise called Fanatics, which mostly catered to the college sports merchandising space.

When Rubin sold GSI to eBay for $2.4 billion in 2011, the online auction company didn’t want the merchandising component. So Rubin bought back Fanatics in a separate deal and set out to rebrand the company.

“You know, it’s funny. I’ve never thought about what was going to be my future,” said Rubin. “I’m always thinking about big ideas in business. Whenever you accomplish something, you’re always like, ‘Great, what’s next?’ That’s just the way I’m built.”

In the last decade-plus, Fanatics has grown from a sports merchandising company into a business behemoth composed of merchandising, trading cards and most recently, the ever-expanding sports betting/iGaming industry. Rubin sold his minority ownership stake in the 76ers and New Jersey Devils in October 2022, and he told The Inquirer that there will be no more exploration into that realm of business.

“Definitely not,” Rubin said. “I was honored to do it with the Sixers. We never won (a title), which was a failure on our part. But from my perspective, I have the biggest opportunity in the world with Fanatics, there’s too much conflict with owning parts of teams. I need to be focused on the fan.”

“I think he’s great. He’s very, very smart. A dynamo. Very good businessman. Honorable and driven,” New York Yankees president Randy Levine said of Rubin.

The Fanatics sportsbook is already a presence at several pro stadiums — Commanders Field (NFL Commanders), Progressive Field (MLB Guardians) and Nationwide Arena (NHL Blue Jackets). And Fanatics’ purchase of PointsBet’s U.S. businesses in April further accelerated Fanatics’ sports betting footprint across the country, especially in the Pennsylvania/New Jersey/New York triangle.

According to MoneyDigest, New York and New Jersey had the most lucrative handles (the amount of money wagered by individuals) in 2023 at $1.7 billion and $1.01 billion, respectively.

“[Sports betting] is a really big business, and it’s going to keep getting bigger. I think we have some really unique assets,” said Rubin of the latest Fanatics venture. “We have tremendous advantages from our brand, the customers that we have, the relationships we have with athletes and everybody around us.”

» READ MORE: Fanatics aims to build the sportsbook of the future, betting on the long game

While business is good, there is not yet a definitive date when Fanatics will go public.

“While an IPO (initial public offering) is clearly an available option to us at some point in the future, there has been no change to the timing,” a Fanatics spokesperson said in a statement to The Inquirer. “Any public offering is just a moment in time as our focus remains on expanding our businesses and building the leading digital-sports platform over the next decade and beyond.”

Until that day, Rubin said he remains “laser-focused” on developing new ideas and innovation for Fanatics to enhance the fan experience. It is also why most of the Fest weekend, Rubin spent equal time rubbing elbows with Jody from Conshohocken as much as Jay-Z from New York.

“No matter what, I’m never satisfied. I’m always pushing, pushing, pushing,” said Rubin. “That’s my mentality. I have a really close relationship with Tom Brady. When Tom won a Super Bowl, he’s like the next day, ‘How do I get the next one?’ I’ve got the same mentality.

“When we were all kids, we aspired to be an athlete, a musician, we wanted to be something cool like that,” he added. “Now people aspire to be entrepreneurs. If I can provide a little bit of energy, inspiration to young kids, that’s pretty cool. I like driving entrepreneurialism. I love what I’m doing.”