Michael Rubin, an American entrepreneur and humanitarian, holds the position of CEO at Fanatics, a renowned global supplier of authorized sports merchandise. Additionally, he serves as the executive chairman of Rue Gilt Groupe, a distinguished e-commerce conglomerate specializing in off-price retail, comprising RueLaLa.com, Gilt.com, and ShopPremiumOutlets.com.
Bio/Wiki
Age- 50 years
Height-1.79m
Weight-76kg
Born- July 21, 1972
Birthplace- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Full name- Michael G. Rubin
Profession- CEO of Fanatics, Executive Chairman Rue Gilt Groupe,Co-chair Reform Alliance
Spouse- Meegan Rubin (divorced)
Partner-Camille Fishel
Nationality- American
Citizenship- United States
Family
Rubin, born into a Jewish household, was the child of Paulette and Ken Rubin. His mother worked as a psychiatrist while his father pursued a career as a veterinarian. Raised in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania, Rubin embarked on his entrepreneurial journey at a young age. At 12 years old, he established a ski-tuning shop in his parents’ basement. Utilizing $2,500 received as bar mitzvah gifts, along with a lease signed by his father, Rubin took a significant step forward by inaugurating a proper ski shop called Mike’s Ski and Sport in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, just two years later.
Girlfriend
Rubin, who is 50 years old, along with his 32-year-old girlfriend, Camille Fishel, organized a lavish event, ensuring that no expenses were spared in providing exceptional care for their esteemed guests.
Rubin is divorced from local dance teacher Meegan Rubin.Rubin previously dated television news anchor and author Nicole Lapin. Rubin is friends with rapper Meek Mill.
Children
Rubin has two daughters. One daughter is named Kylie, and she was born during his marriage to Meegan Rubin. The second daughter, Romi Rubin, was born in July 2020, and her mother is professional model Camille Fishel.
Career
At the age of 16, he found himself burdened with a debt of approximately $120,000. However, he managed to resolve the situation by accepting a $37,000 loan from his father on the condition that he pursue higher education. Adhering to this agreement, he continued to run his business, which expanded to include five ski shops before he commenced college. Initially, he enrolled at Villanova University, but after realizing a significant profit from an opportunistic transaction, he decided to drop out. This particular venture involved purchasing overstock equipment worth $200,000 at a substantial discount by borrowing $17,000 from a friend. He then resold the equipment for $75,000, resulting in a substantial gain.
After a fortuitous overstock transaction and the sale of his ski shops, he proceeded to establish KPR sports, a company specializing in the clearance of athletic equipment. The name of the company was derived from the initials of his parents. In 1993, when Rubin was 21 years old, KPR achieved $1 million in annual sales. By 1995, the company’s sales skyrocketed to $50 million. During the same year, Rubin acquired a 40% stake in Rykä, a manufacturer of women’s athletic shoes.
In 1998, Rubin founded Global Sports Incorporated, initially focused on apparel and logistics. Eventually, it transformed into GSI Commerce, an e-commerce giant worth billions of dollars. At the age of 38, in 2011, Rubin sold GSI to eBay for a staggering $2.4 billion, earning a windfall of $150 million. Since eBay only desired the order fulfillment business to compete with Amazon.com, Rubin managed to repurchase the consumer businesses of GSI at a heavily discounted price. This included Fanatics, Inc., a licensed sports merchandise company, Rue La La, a flash sales retailer, and ShopRunner, a retail benefits program. Rubin assumed the role of CEO at Fanatics and became the executive chairman of Rue La La’s board. In 2019, Simon Property Group collaborated with Rubin to digitize their mall inventory, contributing $280 million to the joint venture. In December 2020, ShopRunner was sold to FedEx.
Rubin has successfully brokered partnership agreements between Fanatics and over 300 professional leagues, sports, and teams. Notable deals include collaborations with Nike, the National Football League, and Major League Baseball, granting Fanatics the exclusive rights to design, produce, and distribute fan gear for both leagues. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rubin temporarily repurposed a Fanatics facility to manufacture hospital gowns and personal protective equipment for frontline workers. In August 2020, he secured $350 million in Series E funding for Fanatics, which valued the company at $6.2 billion.
Throughout 2021, Rubin and Fanatics attracted significant investments, with a $320 million funding round in March and an additional $325 million in August. These funding rounds propelled the company’s valuation to $18 billion as of September 2021. As part of the latter funding round, it was announced that Rubin would transition to the CEO role in a new, expanded iteration of Fanatics. This revamped company aims to go beyond merchandise and develop a global digital sports platform, expanding into various sports-related verticals such as NFTs, sports betting and gaming, trading cards, ticketing, and media. Rubin ventured into the NFT space in May 2021 by co-founding Candy Digital, a digital collectibles company.
Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils stake
In October 2011, Rubin acquired a minority share in the Philadelphia 76ers as part of an investment group led by Josh Harris and David Blitzer. The deal, worth $280 million, was approved by the NBA on October 13, 2011.
In 2013, Rubin joined another investment group led by Harris and Blitzer to purchase a share in the New Jersey Devils and the Prudential Center for $320 million.
In 2022, Rubin sold his stakes in Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, the holding company for both teams, to David J. Adelman due to a conflict of interest related to Fanatics’ expanding sports betting business and player partnerships.
Media appearances
Rubin’s media presence includes Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, Entrepreneur, People Magazine, and Sports Illustrated. He has been interviewed or quoted in these publications. He has also appeared on Dateline NBC, Good Morning America, and CNN. In 2010, he participated in the TV show Undercover Boss, where he revealed his identity and gifted $10,000 to an employee in need. Rubin has spoken at various e-commerce and sports industry events such as MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conferences, Wharton Sports Business Summit, Recode’s Code Commerce, and Fast Company Innovation Festival.
Achievement/ Accolades
- Rubin was honored by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) at its Philadelphia Visionary Gala in 2011 for representing “the true spirit and determination of an entrepreneur” and serving as an inspiration to NFTE students.
- Forbes named him one of the year’s “20 Most Powerful CEOs 40 and Under” in 2011.
- In 2018, Rubin was named to the inaugural Bleacher Report “Power 50” list of most influential people in sports.
- Rubin was included in Sports Business Journal’s “Top 50 Most Influential People in Sports Business” every year between 2015 and 2019.
- In 2021, Rubin was named Sports Business Journal’s “Most Influential Person in Sports Business.”
- In 2022, Rubin was named Sports Business Journal’s “Sports Executive of the Year.”
Net Worth 2023
Michael Rubin, aged 50 and born outside of Philadelphia, is the founder of Fanatics, a company based in Florida. His estimated net worth is around $3.5 billion.
Hamptons House
Fanatics founder Michael Rubin has expanded his luxury real estate collection with the recent acquisition of a Hamptons house for a staggering $50 million. The Hamptons, located on East Long Island, has long been a popular summer destination for wealthy individuals and celebrities from New York. Rubin purchased the mansion from Ziel Feldman, the owner of HFZ Capital Group. According to the New York Post, the property was previously sold in 2000 for $4.35 million but underwent significant renovations under Feldman’s ownership, resulting in an impressive 8,000-square-foot house featuring seven bedrooms and four bathrooms.
This isn’t Rubin’s first venture into high-end New York real estate. In 2018, he made headlines by purchasing a penthouse in downtown Manhattan for over $40 million, setting a record price for that particular neighborhood.
Rubin’s new Hamptons residence is conveniently located near properties owned by prominent figures such as Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, and Bob Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots.
Rubin Putting Hamptons House to Good Use
To celebrate his new Hamptons mansion, Rubin hosted a lavish Fourth of July “White Party,” attracting a star-studded guest list of athletes and celebrities. Attendees included Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Tom Brady (retired NFL legend and minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders), Kylian Mbappé (French soccer star), various NBA players, and Leonardo Di Caprio.
While Rubin had previously held minority stakes in the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, he sold those interests last year to avoid potential conflicts of interest as Fanatics geared up for a more significant involvement in the regulated sports wagering industry. Reports suggest that Rubin earned a substantial windfall of $300 million from divesting his 10% holdings in those teams.
Fanatics, valued at $31 billion in private markets, boasts a list of well-known investors. The company counts the major US sports leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) and Major League Soccer (MLS) among its investors. Notable names like Silver Lake, SoftBank, BlackRock, Fidelity, and MSD Partners (controlled by Dell founder Michael Dell) have also invested in Fanatics.
After a busy June for Fanatics, Rubin seemingly enjoyed some relaxation time at his Hamptons mansion, culminating in the star-studded White Party. In June, Fanatics secured the winning bid for PointsBet’s US operations, but only after raising their cash offer to $225 million. This increase was prompted by rival DraftKings, who entered the bidding process with a $195 million offer, surpassing Fanatics’ initial proposal. Speculation arose that the involvement of DraftKings CEO Jason Robins in the PointsBet sale process was motivated by long-standing animosity between him and Rubin, potentially seeking to impede Fanatics’ progress.
Fun Facts
- Rubin became a partner of the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team in 2011 and the New Jersey Devils hockey team in 2013. However, he sold his ownership stakes in Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of both teams, in June 2022. This decision was made to shift his focus towards the expansion of Fanatics.
- Alongside Jay-Z, Meek Mill, Robert Kraft, and Daniel S. Loeb, Rubin co-founded the REFORM Alliance in January 2019. This organization aims to bring about criminal justice reform. Rubin currently serves as the co-chair of the REFORM Alliance.
- Rubin’s achievements have been recognized by various prestigious lists. He has been featured in the Forbes 400: The Richest People in America, Forbes: The World’s Billionaires list, and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
- As of November 2022, Rubin’s personal wealth was estimated to be $10.2 billion.
- Rubin initiated the viral “All In Challenge,” which generated over $60 million to combat food insecurity amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
- In January 2023, Rubin made an announcement stating that Fanatics, the NFL, and NFLPA would contribute the entire proceeds from the sales of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s jerseys to support Hamlin’s Chasing M’s foundation.
- This decision came after Hamlin experienced cardiac arrest during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals.