Fanatics Live, the livestream shopping platform owned by Fanatics, tells sellers it “prohibits gambling” and that “Duck Races, Spins, Rolls, Raffles, Roulette Wheels, and third-party randomized results are not permitted.” The same platform allows random team breaks, the card-break format, in which every buyer pays the same price and is randomly assigned a team.

A whistleblower suit filed under the California False Claims Act says card breaks on Fanatics Live and rival Whatnot are “unlicensed box-break lotteries,” ESPN reported in June. A Fanatics spokesperson declined to comment to ESPN.

The suit lands on a company that sits on several sides of the card-break business. Fanatics makes trading cards through Topps, which it bought in 2022, sells its own mystery boxes, and runs a platform where sellers open cards live. Through its FanCash rewards, it also lets sportsbook customers spend what they earn on bets on items, including signed rookie cards.

Fanatics has also been named as a defendant in at least four antitrust suits brought by breakers, livestream sellers who open sealed card packs on camera and sell spots in them.

Each complaint asks a federal court to stop what it describes as “allegations of gambling” that led to bans. Gambling Insider reported Sept. 25 that TikTok Shop now requires random team breaks to run through its own randomization tool.

Whistleblowers Accuse Fanatics Live of Running Unlicensed Lotteries

The California suit, filed in July 2025 against...

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