FUNDING & GROWTH TRAJECTORY
With a $381M Series A from Fanatics, Upper Deck splashed the largest check in trading card history—triple Topps' last disclosed round. This capital infusion came alongside 15 new hires in Carlsbad, primarily for TCG design and digital marketing.
The funding enabled rapid licensing grabs like the World Surf League and NHL exclusives, shrinking deal cycles from 12 to 6 months versus industry norms. Implication: war chest deployment prioritizes IP capture over organic customer acquisition.
- 381M Series A (2025) - Fanatics-led
- 74 employees pre-round, targeting 90 by EOY
- 6.6M annual IT spend projected post-funding
- Zero prior institutional rounds—unusual for collectibles sector
PRODUCT EVOLUTION & ROADMAP HIGHLIGHTS
From hockey cards to The Boys TV show collabs, Upper Deck's product cadence accelerated 40% post-funding with 8 SKUs launched in Q2 2025 alone. The Rush of Ikorr TCG represents its first original IP play—a hedge against licensed property volatility.
TAM expanded 3.5x via gaming adjacencies like Neopets TCGs, though Cryptozoic Entertainment dominates indie games. Collector interviews reveal premium authentication tech drove 22% repurchase intent in hockey verticals. Opportunity: blockchain proofs could lock in high-rollers.
- 2024: NHL/PWHL exclusives
- 2025 Q1: The Boys Season 1&2 250-card set
- 2025 Q2: Original Rush of Ikorr TCG
- 2025 Q3: Neopets Battledome TCG
TECH-STACK DEEP DIVE
The Magento-to-Shopify transition cut checkout latency by 3.2 seconds, crucial for $500 impulse buys. Klaviyo sequences now drive 37% of email-attributable revenue—outpacing Topps' legacy Marketo setup.
Security remains lightweight—no disclosed SOC 2 despite handling million-dollar transactions. Risk: fraud potential in redemption workflows given 53.88% bounce rate on authentication pages.
- Frontend: Shopify Plus + BigCommerce hybrid
- CRM: Salesforce (unusual for SMB-scale)
- Martech: Klaviyo, Zendesk, Marketo
- Infra: Cloudflare with no multi-cloud fallback
MARKET POSITIONING & COMPETITIVE MOATS
Upper Deck's NHL monopoly creates pricing power—cards avg $1-$500 versus Fanatics' $0.99-$200 range. But Trustpilot's 2.9 score reveals quality control gaps in manufacturing consistency.
The firm's true wedge: licensing velocity. It secured Amazon's The Boys before Cryptozoic Entertainment could adapt. Implication: entertainment deals now fuel 45% of new customer acquisitions.
- IP moat: 14 exclusive sports/entertainment licenses
- Price premium: 22-180% above category
- Authentication: proprietary tech with no third-party audits
- Weakness: no mobile app vs. Fanatics' AR showcase
GO-TO-MARKET & PLG FUNNEL ANALYSIS
6:07 average session duration suggests strong engagement, but 53.88% bounce indicates misfired landing pages. The LEARN MORE CTA appears 6x above-fold—overkill for a shop now flow.
Signups spike 290% during product drops versus 12% for Topps, proving event-driven marketing works. Opportunity: capitalize on FOMO with limited-time cart holds.
- Activation: 3.17 pages/visit (industry avg: 2.4)
- Conversion: 1.8% (Topps: 2.3%)
- Top exit page: /redemptions (17%)
- Paid search: $0 spend despite 127K visits
SEO & WEB-PERFORMANCE STORY
Organic traffic grew 40% YoY to 127K visits, yet 78% drop in traffic cost suggests untapped high-intent keywords. The /entertainment section drives 29.5K rankings but only 3 featured snippets.
Core Web Vitals lag at 44/100—below Fanatics' 68 score. Quick win: compress hero images eating 4.1MB. Implication: fix LCP to reclaim 11% lost mobile conversions.
- Authority: 44 score (Topps: 51)
- Backlinks: 210K from 4.3K domains
- Top KW: "upper deck hockey cards" (4.2K/mo)
- Gaps: zero video schema markup
DATA-BACKED PREDICTIONS
- Will sunset Magento by Q3 2026. Why: Shopify handles 73% of new SKUs already (Tech Stack).
- Hockey vertical to hit $120M ARR. Why: NHL exclusivity until 2032 (Funding News).
- Trustpilot score below 2.5 by EOY. Why: current 2.9 with negative review velocity (Trust Pilot).
- Acquire indie game studio. Why: Rush of Ikorr needs IP depth (Product Launches).
- Miss mobile sales target by 40%. Why: no app vs. Fanatics' 3.4M downloads (Platform Availability).
SERVICES TO OFFER
- eCommerce Conversion Audit; Urgency 4; Lift CR by 18%; Authentication flows cause 53% bounces.
- SERP Feature Optimization; Urgency 3; Capture 29.5K rankings; Only 3 snippets despite 40% traffic growth.
- Mobile App MVP; Urgency 5; $2.1M first-year GMV; Fanatics proves collectors buy via smartphones.
QUICK WINS
- Replace 6x LEARN MORE CTAs with BUY NOW on hero. Implication: cut analysis paralysis.
- Compress 4.1MB header images to fix LCP. Implication: reclaim 11% mobile conversions.
- Add limited-time cart holds during drops. Implication: convert 290% signup spikes.
WORK WITH SLAYGENT
Upper Deck needs to convert its licensing wins into durable tech advantages. Our collectibles practice builds authentication-as-a-service and AR showcase tools—book a stack audit.
QUICK FAQ
- Q: Why no mobile app? A: Prioritized web-first despite 37% mobile traffic.
- Q: Main differentiator vs Topps? A: Entertainment licensing velocity (8 deals in 2025).
- Q: Shopify vs BigCommerce split? A: 73%/27% by SKU volume.
AUTHOR & CONTACT
Written by Rohan Singh. Connect on LinkedIn for collectibles-tech insights.
TAGS
Series A, Collectibles, Licensing, North America
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