Forbes put Michael Rubin's net worth at $11.5 billion in August 2024. Fanatics is unlisted, so the estimate depends on private funding rounds. The latest priced valuation is $31 billion from a $700 million round in December 2022.
Rubin started a ski-tuning business in his parents' basement at 12 and opened Mike's Ski and Sport at 14 with $2,500 in bar mitzvah gifts. He left Villanova after a semester and built the closeout company KPR Sports, which reached $50 million in sales by 1995. In 1998 he created Global Sports, later GSI Commerce.
eBay bought GSI Commerce for $2.4 billion in 2011. Rubin bought back the consumer sports businesses, including Fanatics, and raised $150 million from Insight Venture Partners and Andreessen Horowitz in 2012. Fanatics bought Topps in 2021, launched a sportsbook in 2023 and was valued at $31 billion in December 2022.
Rubin also bought a minority stake in the Philadelphia 76ers in 2011 as part of a group led by Josh Harris and David Blitzer, and sold his stakes in 2022.