Fanatics Names Meta Exec Deborah Crawford Its First Head of Investor Relations

Fanatics has appointed Deborah Crawford as senior vice president, head of investor relations.

In her new role, which is a newly created position at Fanatics, Crawford will focus on the firm’s relationships with current and future shareholders, the online sports platform said in a Thursday (April 27) press release.

Crawford moves to the company from Meta, where she most recently served as vice president, head of investor relations. Before her 10 years with Meta, Crawford was head of investor relations for both Ancestry.com and Netflix, according to the release.

“As we continue to grow and mature as a global organization, getting our story right with the investor community remains critical,” Fanatics Chief Financial Officer Glenn H. Schiffman said in the release. “Deborah has a strong track record of developing and executing comprehensive investor relations programs at scale for top-tier organizations.”

Fanatics does not plan to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in the near term, but it is preparing for one, and the appointment of a head of investor relations is a step in that direction, CNBC reported Thursday.

“We’re not going public near term,” Schiffman told CNBC. “We’ve thought about it medium term. Eventually, we will go public.”

This appointment comes about five months after Fanatics raised $700 million in a December 2022 funding round that put the company’s valuation at $31 billion and landed it in the top half of the S&P 500.

About two months later, in February, the company began its entrance to the world of livestream shopping by hiring Nick Bell, formerly of Snap and Google, to serve as CEO of Fanatics Live.

In another recent move, Fanatics announced April 19 that WWE has expanded its partnership with the firm, giving it control of events merchandising, which means that Fanatics Commerce will manage on-site retail sales for all of WWE’s 300-plus wrestling events each year.

“Throughout my career, I’ve always admired and been attracted to organizations at the forefront of their industry, and in my eyes, there could not be a more exciting company to join right now than Fanatics,” Crawford said in the Thursday press release. “I look forward to working with Glenn and the extended leadership team to further solidify Fanatics’ position within the market with current and future investors.”