Fanatics, New Era, SeatGeek Lead List of IPO Maybes in 2026
The market for initial public offerings is expecting a boost this year with Wall Street eyeing a handful of sports-related companies to possibly list their shares.
After a record year in 2021, when roughly 400 companies listed their shares, IPOs largely went on pause for several years. New issues were expected to storm back in 2025, but tariffs, along with a government shutdown and a pullback in AI stocks during the fourth quarter, caused many new issues to remain on pause.
IPOs in 2025 still posted strong numbers. More than 200 companies went public last year, raising $44 billion, up from 150 new issues that collected nearly $30 billion in 2024, according to Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO research and ETFs.
“This was a solid increase over 2024, but the year still failed to live up to its potential,” said Matt Kennedy, Renaissance’s senior IPO strategist.
Hopes are high that 2026 will post even better IPO numbers. The year has already seen 11 new filings of sizable companies since the start of the year, Kennedy said.
Several sports companies may list their shares this year including perennial favorite SeatGeek, the ticketing company focused on live events. SeatGeek has been widely expected to go public for several years, especially since it has already tried to list its shares. In 2021, the startup agreed to merge with a SPAC led by Gerry Cardinale and Billy Beane but ended up calling off the deal a year later, citing unfavorable market conditions. In April 2023, SeatGeek filed confidentially for an IPO, and even hired bankers for the offering a year later. It tapped Morgan Stanley to lead the IPO with Citigroup and Wells Fargo also working on the deal, Bloomberg reported in June 2024.
It’s been nearly three years since SeatGeek confidentially filed, but the offering was still expected in 2025 when the stop-and-go nature of last year’s IPO market put many offerings on hold. It’s possible SeatGeek launches an IPO in 2026, especially since some investors may want to cash out. SeatGeek has raised about $581 million in funding, according to PitchBook. Accel and Causeway Media Partners originally invested in SeatGeek more than a decade ago, in 2014.
There is a caveat. Rival StubHub did go public last year but hasn’t performed well. StubHub shares are trading off about 36% from its IPO price of $23.50. The stock of Vivid Seats, which merged with a SPAC from Todd Boehly in 2021, is also down more than 90% from its 52-week closing high of $94.40 on Jan. 23, 2025.
Another IPO candidate is Hudl, the sports video analysis and coaching software platform. Bain Capital invested in Hudl in 2020 and has long been expected to take the company public. Hudl has raised about $236 million in funding from investors including Bain, Accel and Nelnet Ventures, according to CBInsights.
Fanatics, the world’s largest seller of licensed sports merchandise, which is rapidly expanding into other areas, is also an IPO possibility after years of speculation about it going public. Fanatics was valued at $31 billion in 2022 when it raised $700 million in funding, Sportico reported. Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin told CNBC last summer there was “no rush” to go public. Still, a Fanatics IPO is widely expected as a way to provide liquidity for its investors, which include Clearlake Capital, Silver Lake and LionTree. SoftBank Group invested $1 billion in Fanatics in 2017.
New Era Cap, a competitor to Fanatics, may list its shares this year. Founded in 1920, New Era is best known as a hat company that provides the caps affiliated with MLB, NFL and the NBA. It also offers other apparel for purchase on its website, including shirts, hoodies, shorts, backpacks and smaller accessories like pins. New Era is backed by ACON Investments. In 2023, New Era was preparing for an IPO that could value the company at $4 billion to $5 billion, Reuters reported. Again, investors need liquidity and this could prompt a New Era IPO in 2026.
Also on tap may be Eagle Football Group, the former OL Groupe. Eagle Football trades on the Paris Stock Exchange but has filed confidentially for a U.S. listing, Bloomberg reported in June. Eagle Football owns stakes in clubs such as Olympique Lyonnais, FC Florida and Brazil’s Botafogo.
Still, much of the biggest buzz for this year’s IPO market revolves around the possible mega-listings of non-sports-specific companies like Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX. An offering from any of these three could be the largest IPO ever, Kennedy said. “Right now, we’re seeing an IPO market, and it will be a big one,” Kennedy said.
Sports companies aren’t expected to be a dominant theme in 2026, mainly because there aren’t enough of them, Kennedy said. About 10 sports-related companies listed on global exchanges in 2025, raising $1.4 billion, according to data from Dealogic. This compares with six businesses in 2024 that collected nearly $2 billion. Both are down from 2021, the height of the IPO market, when 14 sports companies raised $3.13 billion.
Paul Harris, who leads KPMG’s media and sports deal advisory practice, said it’s too soon to see a groundswell of IPOs from sports and sports-tech companies. “To the extent that the public markets are an option, I think it is more like three to five years away rather than this year,” Harris said.
Executives for SeatGeek, Hudl, Fanatics and Eagle Football did not return messages for comment. New Era could not immediately be reached for comment.
