Loot Crate signs with Major League Baseball (MLB), giving the subscription box service long-sought access to sports licensing, says David Morris, SVP Operations.

The first mystery boxes will start with 10 teams – New York Yankees, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants – and ship every other month, starting this month, with a $35 price. Loot Crate will introduce additional teams as the MLB season progresses.

“We have all the teams signed up, but we just need to listen to the fans and find out what they want,” says a Loot Crate spokesman. Loot Crate will have online sign-up sheets for teams that aren’t available at the start and “we will be able to gauge demand based on that information,” says the spokesman. 

The packages will contain 6-8 products including apparel and collectibles. Each box will have a team’s key player beginning with a starting pitcher, says the spokesman who declined to disclose further details. Loot Crate will pay royalties both to MLB and Major League Baseball Players Association (MBPLA). The program will run through September. 

The bulk of the products in each box will be designed and sourced by Loot Crate and are part of the company’s effort to expand into sports from its base in entertainment properties that have been its hallmark since the service launched in 2014. Among the other sports collectibles services is Game Day Box. Loot Crate has more than 650,000 subscribers, up from more than 600,000 in mid-2016, with the majority of its business being in the “core” crates that carry a $16 monthly fee. And while there are one-, three-, six- and 12-month subscriptions available, the largest portion of customers take the three-month agreement, says Morris.

Meanwhile, Loot Crate also is seeking to expand its international business, having recently opened an office in London headed by General Manager Sarah Clark. Clark, a former PayPal executive, will be responsible for the UK and Europe. The UK is Loot Crate’s second largest market after North America.

Contact:

Loot Crate, David Voss, Chief Creative Officer, 310-469-1019,david.voss@lootcrate.com