VP, Strategic

Fanatics is building a leading global digital sports platform. We ignite the passions of global sports fans and maximize the presence and reach for our hundreds of sports partners globally by offering products and services across Fanatics Commerce, Fanatics Collectibles, and Fanatics Betting & Gaming, allowing sports fans to Buy, Collect, and Bet. Through the Fanatics platform, sports fans can buy licensed fan gear, jerseys, lifestyle and streetwear products, headwear, and hardgoods;

collect physical and digital trading cards, sports memorabilia, and other digital assets; and bet as the company builds its Sports book and iGaming platform. Fanatics has an established database of over 100 million global sports fans; a global partner network with approximately 900 sports properties, including major national and international professional sports leagues, players associations, teams, colleges, college conferences and retail partners, 2,500 athletes and celebrities, and 200 exclusive athletes;

and over 2,000 retail locations, including its Lids retail stores. Our more than 22,000 employees are committed to relentlessly enhancing the fan experience and delighting sports fans globally.

Launched in 2021, Fanatics Betting and Gaming is the online and retail sports betting subsidiary of Fanatics, a global digital sports platform. The Fanatics Sports book is available to 95% of the addressable online sports bettor market in the U.S. Fanatics Casino is currently available online in Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Fanatics Betting and Gaming operates twenty-two retail sports betting locations, including the only sports book inside an NFL stadium at Northwest Stadium.

Fanatics Betting and Gaming is headquartered in New York with offices in Denver, Leeds and Dublin.

Fanatics Betting & Gaming is seeking a VP, Strategic Payments to define and lead the payments strategy across our growing sports betting and gaming business. Payments are a critical part of the customer experience and our ability to efficiently scale the business, and this leader will be responsible for ensuring our payments ecosystem delivers a seamless experience for customers while supporting our growth, economics, and expansion into new markets.

This role will own the strategic and commercial side of payments, including relationships with payment providers, banks, processors, and other key partners. You will develop and execute a comprehensive payments strategy focused on improving deposit and withdrawal experiences, increasing payment success and reliability, optimizing costs, strengthening vendor performance, and enabling launches in new markets.

The ideal candidate brings deep payments industry expertise, strong relationships across the payments ecosystem, and experience taking payment capabilities to market. You should be equally comfortable negotiating with a major payment provider, evaluating payment economics, navigating banking and merchant requirements, and working with Product and Engineering teams to solve complex customer and business problems.

• Define and execute the long-term payments strategy for Fanatics Betting & Gaming, aligning payment capabilities with customer experience, growth, market expansion, and financial objectives.
• Identify opportunities to improve the customer deposit and withdrawal experience, including payment acceptance, speed, reliability, and availability of payment methods.
• Develop a clear roadmap for how our payments ecosystem should evolve as the business scales and customer needs change.
• Evaluate emerging payment methods, technologies, and industry trends and determine where Fanatics should invest, partner, or build.
• Establish clear success metrics and use data to continuously evaluate payment performance and identify opportunities for improvement.

• Develop strategies to improve payment authorization and deposit success rates while maintaining a frictionless customer experience.
• Own the strategic evaluation of payment costs across providers, methods, and transaction types, identifying opportunities to improve overall unit economics.
• Partner with Finance, Product, Engineering, Risk, Fraud, and other teams to understand the drivers behind payment performance and develop solutions.
• Analyze payment flows and performance to identify friction points, operational challenges, and opportunities to improve customer…