Narrative Designer - Sports

Company Overview

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.

We’re seeking a Narrative Designer to help bring the world of sports to life within a trading card game.

Sports has its own energy, mythology, and language. The work is about translating that into a game in ways that feel authentic and earned.

You’ll work closely with Creative, Game Design, and Art to develop narrative systems that live inside the cards themselves — where mechanics, visuals, and writing reinforce one another.

The ideal candidate brings sharp storytelling instincts, a systems mindset, and a serious, lifelong relationship with sports — the kind of knowledge that comes from years of paying close attention, not from research.

• Translate the emotional weight of sports into card-level storytelling.
• Capture the voice, cadence, and texture of how sports are talked about — by fans, broadcasters, and the people inside the game.
• Help shape the editorial tone and identity of the product over time.

• Partner with Game Design so mechanics and narrative reinforce one another.
• Collaborate with Art and Creative to align visual and written storytelling, including writing art descriptions used by illustrators.
• Contribute to set themes, narrative arcs, and standout moments across releases.

• Write flavor text, card names, and supporting narrative content.
• Contribute to internal style guides, voice documents, and editorial standards.
• Support external storytelling efforts (web, marketing, potential media extensions).

• A deep, lived knowledge of sports fandom — history, culture, eras, players, and the texture of how the game is followed and talked about.
• 3+ years of experience in narrative design, writing, journalism, or editorial work — ideally with a meaningful body of work in or around sports.
• Excellent writing across both short‑form (flavor text, headlines, captions) and long‑form (features, voice guides, editorial frameworks).
• A systems mindset — the ability to think about how individual pieces accrue into something larger, and how editorial choices compound over time.
• Comfort balancing creative vision with system constraints, and working in collaborative, cross‑functional environments.

• A background in sports writing, journalism, broadcasting, or publishing.
• A genuine passion for sports card collecting and trading card games.
• Experience working on trading card games, tabletop games, or live service games.
• Experience contributing to franchise, brand, or editorial development at scale.

As set forth in Fanatics Collectibles’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.