Fanatics works with Oracle to build efficiency and scalability for future growth

With more than 100 million customers and $10.5 billion in annual revenue, Fanatics is a leading global digital sports platform that spans commerce, collectibles, betting, and gaming. The company’s growth took off in recent years through acquisitions and expansions beyond its core sports merchandise business, resulting in a company that ran over 15 ERP systems and many manual processes. Fanatics moved to Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP, EPM, SCM, and HCM to better integrate data among business units, improve efficiency, and generate insights needed to make decisions. For example, Oracle Fusion Accounting Hub provided Fanatics the scalability and automation needed to launch a new betting and gaming business in time for the NFL season, which was a key initiative for the company.

Fanatics started as an ecommerce business in 2002 and grew via a multitude of acquisitions and new business ventures, resulting in three primary business units: sales of licensed merchandise, memorabilia and collectibles, and gaming and betting. Disparate systems across those business units created cumbersome processes and a lot of manual work to close the books accurately and on time. The financial close process could take weeks as the finance team manually pulled data from various legacy systems for consolidation. To become a more automated and integrated business, Fanatics needed to bring its three verticals together on a common data platform with standardized processes.

With support from Oracle partner PwC, Fanatics chose Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Oracle Fusion Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM). Fanatics recognized that the suite would bring improved data accuracy, more efficient consolidation processes, and better fan experiences. In addition, Fanatics was drawn to the application suite because of its ability to improve operations across the organization, from supply chain and manufacturing to planning and budgeting. Company leaders realized that Oracle would be a strong technology partner to help the company scale and integrate operations as it continued to expand.

Working with Oracle Customer Success Services and PwC, Fanatics is in the midst of a phased rollout of Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP, EPM, SCM, and HCM across business units and geographies. While the implementation is ongoing, the company is already benefiting from improved data accuracy and insights and is closing its books more efficiently.

Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP and EPM allowed Fanatics to streamline consolidation and planning processes, particularly in the betting and gaming business, where it regularly handles high transaction volumes. Oracle Fusion Accounting Hub helped Fanatics process hundreds of millions of records to better manage compliance, reporting, and reconciliation requirements within its betting and gaming operations.

Fanatics uses Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM to manage payroll for employees. It also uses Oracle Cloud Infrastructure integration services to move data from its proprietary trading, betting, and gaming platform into Oracle Cloud through Oracle Fusion Accounting Hub. The company is in the process of launching Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence for advanced reporting. Both the commerce and collectibles businesses are implementing Oracle Fusion Cloud SCM, which will provide Fanatics with an integrated workforce, supply, and demand planning system.

Over time, Fanatics aims to gain better insights and deeper data consolidation across its different business verticals with the Oracle Fusion Cloud suite, allowing the company to understand its customers and keep fans interested in its platform and services. “We're trying to incentivize our fan base, where the fan can come to Fanatics, place a wager, and maybe buy a hat or a collectible item,” says Cole. “It's about trying to celebrate them and do these things for the best fan experience.”