CARY, N.C. – USA Baseball and Panini America, the world's largest sports and entertainment collectibles company, today announced a third extension of their exclusive licensing agreement that originated in 2012. The renewed deal ushers in a new era of partnership between the two organizations, featuring a significant expansion of rights and content and a shared commitment to feature the national governing body and its athletes in Panini America’s baseball products lineup. The extension also reaffirms Panini America’s position as the Official Baseball Card of USA Baseball.
Panini America retains exclusive trading card rights to all USA Baseball marks, including the Collegiate, 18U, and 15U National Teams, as well as the organization’s National Team Development Programs. For the first time ever, the agreement also includes rights to the USA Baseball Women’s National Team, paving the way for the creation of first-of-its-kind products celebrating women in baseball. Panini America now also holds rights to the 12U National Team, whose program began in 2012 and is already producing stars in professional baseball, including Pete Crow-Armstrong, Paul Skenes, and Anthony Volpe.
Additionally, the partnership will allow Panini America to heighten its presence around the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award. Following a successful 2024 campaign tied to the announcement of Golden Spikes Award winner Charlie Condon at the College World Series in Omaha, Panini America will once again be on-site in 2025 to celebrate the award, distributing a limited-edition card pack in the lead-up to the announcement on Saturday, June 21.
“For fourteen years, Panini America and USA Baseball have collaborated to provide unparalleled early access to cards of the game’s next generation of stars,” said USA Baseball Chief Operating Officer David Perkins. “With today’s announcement, we are pleased to continue our partnership, and now also capture and deliver USA Baseball’s national team players, gold medals, and other defining moments for the organization to Panini Instant.”
This partnership extension will also mark the debut of USA Baseball on Panini Instant, the industry's leading direct-to-consumer platform, which allows fans to collect exclusive trading cards on demand tied to standout performances and highlights from national team players for a limited time. While innovative products are key to the agreement, the collector and fan favorites, USA Baseball Factory Set and the annual Stars & Stripes program, will remain in the product lineup. Both will continue to be produced by Panini America.
“We are excited to extend our partnership with USA Baseball, the evolution of our relationship to incorporate products including Panini Instant to new initiatives including expanding to cover USA Baseball Women’s National Team make this next phase special as we are able to celebrate and incorporate all USA Baseball players,” said Mark Warsop, CEO of Panini America.
Beginning this summer, fans will see a brand-new feature on the fields at the National Training Complex during national team games: Panini America-branded on-deck circles. More than just a symbolic celebration of the partnership between the two organizations, these additions represent an expansion of the already extensive lineup of game-used memorabilia featured in USA Baseball products. Alongside player-worn jerseys, which will continue to proudly feature Panini America logo patches, these on-deck circles will eventually make their way onto cards, delivering a new piece of memorabilia to fans.
Since the inception of the partnership in 2012, 212 USA Baseball alumni have been first round selections, including 10 overall No. 1 picks: Mark Appel (2013), Brady Aiken (2014), Dansby Swanson (2015), Mickey Moniak (2016), Royce Lewis (2017), Casey Mize (2018), Adley Rutschman (2019), Spencer Torkelson (2020), Jackson Holliday (2022), and Skenes (2023)—showcasing USA Baseball’s unique ability to deliver the game’s future brightest stars to collectors and the trading card industry. In its history, 586 total Team USA alumni have been selected in the first round after playing for USA Baseball since 1972, and 36 of the No. 1 overall picks in that span have worn the red, white, and blue.
