Panini America Reaches Exclusive Trading Card Agreements With Mississippi State, Baylor And More Than 200 Additional Universities

IRVING, Texas, Nov. 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Panini America, (www.paniniamerica.net), the world's largest sports and entertainment collectibles company, announced today that it has reached exclusive trading card agreements with Mississippi State, Baylor, NC State, K-State and more than 200 additional universities that will allow the company to use the schools' team logos and university marks in its trading card products for college specific trading card sets as well as Panini's professionally licensed products for the NBA, NFL, NFL Players Inc. and MLBPA.

These new agreements come just days after last week's announcement that Panini America had reached exclusive trading card agreements with the University of Kentucky, the University of Miami and the University of Georgia. The company will begin producing collegiate trading card products in the spring of 2015.

In addition to exclusive deals with three of the top 12 teams in the current Associated Press Top 25 college football poll (including No. 1 Mississippi State), the new agreement with more than 200 schools represented by LRG also includes traditional basketball-rich programs such as Memphis, Marquette, St. John's, Temple and more.

"LRG is thrilled to partner with Panini on behalf of our clients.  We are confident Panini represents the best this category has to offer and are excited about the relationship," said Michael Van Wieren, Vice President & General Counsel, Licensing Resource Group, LLC.

"This has been an exciting few weeks for Panini America and the future of licensed college trading cards and we're proud to be at the forefront of a new era," said Mark Warsop, Panini America CEO. "We now have more than 225 universities signed to exclusive, multiyear trading card agreements – our unmatched retail distribution, commitment to marketing and ability to feature professional players in collegiate trading card products through our group player rights will lead to new growth in the collegiate collectibles category and all of our partners recognize that."      

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 relationships with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, The Pro Football Hall of Fame and the National Baseball 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 MLBPA, NBA, NFL, NHL, 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 800. 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

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http://www.paniniamerica.net

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