Panini America Agrees To Terms For Exclusive Rights To Trading Cards With Three Major Universities

Georgia, Kentucky and Miami agree to grant global collectibles leader exclusive rights to use school marks on the company's trading card products across all sports

News provided by

Panini America

Oct 23, 2014, 01:00 ET

IRVING, Texas, Oct. 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Panini America, (www.paniniamerica.net), the world's largest sports and entertainment collectibles company, announced today that it has agreed to terms with the University of Georgia, the University of Kentucky and the University of Miami that will allow the company to use each university's marks in its trading card products on an exclusive basis. Panini plans to announce partnerships with a number of other schools over the next several weeks.

In addition, the exclusive agreements will mark the first time since 2009 that Panini America will include college-branded cards within its NBA, NFL and MLBPA trading card products.

"This is a significant announcement not just for us, but for the entire trading card industry," said Panini America CEO Mark Warsop. "Some of the most collectible players that we work with across all sports are closely associated with these three universities and we're genuinely excited to be able to honor their collegiate accomplishments in our products."

The new agreements will take effect with the release of Panini America's 2015 NFL/NFLPA trading card products, 2014-15 NBA and 2015 MLBPA products launching in spring of 2015.

"College sports fans are some of the most rabid and loyal fans on the planet. We are looking forward to creating meaningful marketing activations with our collegiate partners to establish a deeper connection to college sports fans and the universities they root for," said Jason Howarth, Panini America Vice President of Marketing.

Panini America is the only company in the world that manufactures licensed trading cards and stickers for the NBA, NFL, NFL Players, MLBPA and FIFA World Cup. The company also has exclusive relationships with USA Baseball, USA Basketball and U.S. Soccer. In addition, Panini also has exclusive relationships with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and The Pro Football Hall of Fame and owns exclusive entertainment licenses with Disney and more than 600 global licenses with other sports and entertainment properties.

ABOUT PANINI:
The Panini Group, established almost 50 years ago in Modena, Italy, has subsidiaries throughout Europe, Latin America and the United States. Panini is the world leader in officially licensed collectibles and is the most significant publisher of collectibles in the U.S., with official licenses for NBA, NFL, NFL Players, MLBPA, NHL/NHLPA, FIFA, USA Baseball, Disney, Nickelodeon, Warner Bros. and other key properties from many other licensors. Panini has distribution channels in more than 100 countries and employs a staff of over 1200. For more information visit us at www.paniniamerica.net, www.paninigroup.com or www.paniniamerica.wordpress.com. You can also follow Panini America on social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and on YouTube.

Media Contact:
Tracy Hackler, Panini America
214-552-3475
[email protected]

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SOURCE Panini America