BACKPANINI AMERICA AND UNRIVALED LAUNCH AN EXCLUSIVE MULTI-YEAR TRADING CARD AGREEMENT
Panini To Launch Panini Instant Today With Start Of 2026 Season
Irving, TX – January 8, 2025 – Panini America, the world’s largest sports and entertainment collectibles company, has announced an exclusive, multi-year trading card partnership with the player-owned professional women’s 3-on-3 basketball league Unrivaled, whose second season tipped off this week. The partnership is the latest in a string of partnerships for Unrivaled and brings Unrivaled’s first officially licensed trading cards to market to engage basketball fans beyond the game. The partnership was facilitated by OneTeam Partners, which serves as Unrivaled’s exclusive licensing agency for trading cards and memorabilia.
Unrivaled was founded by women’s basketball stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart and built in collaboration with some of the biggest stars in the sport. Panini will introduce Unrivaled trading cards on its Instant Card platform, beginning today to coincide with the start of the 2026 season and which will continue during the season. Panini will also launch a Rewind set celebrating Unrivaled’s debut 2025 season. Additional Unrivaled trading card products are in development.
“Our partnership with Unrivaled is a great way to reinforce and showcase our support of the women’s game and female athletes,” said Jason Howarth, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Athlete Relations for Panini America. “Unrivaled’s 3-on-3 format makes for exciting and compelling game play and continuing to work with the best players in the world in this format made this partnership make perfect sense.”
Panini is the official Trading Card Partner of the WNBA and WNBPA, and has exclusive partnerships with Unrivaled players Breanna Stewart and Paige Bueckers. In 2024, Panini introduced Panini College, a dedicated NIL platform that enables all athletes at a partner university to have their own Panini trading card under the Panini NIL brand. Women’s basketball, soccer and volleyball athletes at Ohio State University, the University of Connecticut, the University of Nebraska and the University of Texas are currently part of the platform, with plans to expand to additional schools and sports over the coming months.
“We’re excited to partner with Panini America to give fans another way to engage with Unrivaled and the league’s players,” said Unrivaled President Alex Bazzell. “We want to meet fans where they are, and Panini’s history in this space makes them an ideal partner to highlight the biggest moments for women’s basketball’s biggest stars.”
About Panini America
Panini America is a subsidiary of The Panini Group, established over 60 years ago in Modena, Italy with 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 NFL, NFLPA, WNBA, WNBPA, NASCAR, FIFA, LIV Golf, the Professional Fighters League, College, Disney, and other key properties from many other licensors. Panini is also the exclusive trading card and sticker partner of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Elite 11 and Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc.
Panini has distribution channels in more than 150 countries and employs a staff of over 1,200. For more information visit us at www.paniniamerica.net, www.paninigroup.com or
http://blog.paniniamerica.net/. You can also follow Panini America on social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
About Unrivaled:
Unrivaled is a professional women’s basketball league innovating the women’s professional sports landscape with a groundbreaking model centered on investing in its athletes. Co-Founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, Unrivaled is player-owned, providing participating players equity opportunities for a vested interest in the league’s success. Launching in January 2025, Unrivaled will feature the current top women’s basketball stars in the world across eight clubs for a 3-on-3, compressed full court style of play. To learn more, visit unrivaled.basketball or contact [email protected].
# # #
CONTACTS:
Taylor Strategy
Tish Carmona
