FanaticsONE: Too Many Tiers, Not Enough Clarity
Fanatics is the multi-billion dollar sports site for apparel, tickets, and memorabilia, plus has its own sportsbook. It now has a newer loyalty program, FanaticsONE. It’s designed to unite retail, betting, and gaming under one membership, so fans can earn and burn across the entire ecosystem. Ambitious? Definitely. Executed well? Not quite.
Image Credit: Shutterstock
How it works:
FanaticsONE is free to join and promises “FanCash back” every time you shop or play within its universe.
Earning FanCash:
1% FanCash on purchases at Fanatics.com
5% FanCash on all eligible purchases in Fanatics App.
10% FanCash on sports betting and casino play via Fanatics Sportsbook and Casino
💳 You can redeem FanCash as cash-back on Fanatics purchases — 1 FanCash = $1 off.
A 5% clean return rate on merchandise is strong for app buyers, but why only 1% on the website? Aren’t the items the same?
If that wasn’t frustrating enough, things get REALLY complicated with tiers…
Earning Tier Points:
Fanatics has five tiers — ONE Member, ONE Member Pro, ONE Gold, ONE Platinum, and ONEBlack — which already is too many, even for an airline, not to mention a retail/betting site. Tier points are earned just for your level, not for redemption. Here’s their published logic:
1 tier point for every $5 spent on Fanatics.com or the Fanatics App
2 tier points for every $1 of FanCash earned via Fanatics Sportsbook
5 tier points for every $1 of FanCash earned via Fanatics Casino
In trying to explain this, their website says “that in practice you get 20 tier points for every $1 of FanCash earned on Fanatics.com and 4 tier points per $1 on the App.”
🤔 Translation: Essentially, your “tier points” track differently depending on how you earn FanCash, but since FanCash itself is already a spend-based currency, this double-math feels redundant. You earn points to earn cash to earn points again — got it? Neither did we, and we consider ourselves loyalty experts. Members should NOT need a PhD to follow a loyalty program.
TIER BENEFITS:
The # of Tier Points you earn constitutes your level. The list of benefits per level are super long (and each level gets the benefits of the lower level) but many are vague. What exactly is “Athlete & Celebrity Memorabilia”: free gifts or the ability to purchase it? It’s never explained anywhere. What does it mean for “Consideration for Personal Host”? Again, never explained.
| Tier | Tier Points Needed |
Benefits | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ONE Member | 0 |
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| ONE Member Pro | 100 |
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| ONE Gold | 2,500 |
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| ONE Platinum | 10,000 |
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| ONE Black | 20,000 + Invite Only |
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How quickly could you earn these levels? Let’s take a look:
If you ONLY earn app purchases, you’d need $500 in spend to earn ONE Member Pro (1 tier point=$5 in spend), but $100,000 in spend to reach ONE Black.
If you ONLY earn via Sports Betting wagers and Casino, you’d need $500 in betting to earn ONE Member Pro and $100,000 to earn ONE Black, since the sports book and casino earns FanCash at 10% back instead of 5%.
No matter how you look at it, you need to spend A LOT of money to move up in tiers.
🕵️♂️ ANY Fine Print?
Tiers are only for 1 full calendar year after you earn which is typical.
FanCash expires 1 year from earning and some items don’t earn FanCash.
Some betting rules vary by state.
summary:
Fanatics developed a program that gave simple cash back in the form of FanCash, but then complicated it with way too many tiers and an absolute mess of tier-earning logic.
✅ What’s Great:
Earning of FanCash is simple (1% back, 5% back or 10% back based on channel)
FanCash can you be used for purchases.
❌ What’s Not Good:
Only 1% FanCash earning for web which is odd.
Way too many tiers.
Long list of benefits, but no details on any of them.
Absolute bonkers tier earning rules that you need a PhD to understand.
Massive amounts of spend needed for the higher tiers and not sure the benefits are worth it.
👩🏻⚖️Our Verdict:
Meh!
This program is so complicated we were tempted to give it a pass, but the FanCash DOES have value so it’s worth joining to get it. Just don’t bother attempting trying to achieve higher tiers as you 1) won’t be able to figure it out and 2) Likely not worth it anyway.
Leave us a comment! Do you agree or disagree? Any further tips about FanaticsONE?
