Last summer, Tom Brady walked into the Javits Center in Manhattan, competed against a bunch of everyday fans in multi-sport challenges, and walked out with a $1 million prize. Then he gave $5,000 to every fan who competed against him, because apparently winning seven Super Bowls makes you generous with prize money.
Now Fanatics is bringing the whole thing back. Bigger format. Bigger roster. And a $2 million prize pool that doubles last year's stakes.
What Are the Fanatics Games?
Fanatics Games is the competitive centerpiece of Fanatics Fest, the annual sports fan festival that drew over 125,000 people to New York City last year. The concept is simple but wildly entertaining: 50 professional athletes and celebrities go head-to-head against 50 everyday fans in challenges spanning football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, wrestling, and combat sports.
Everyone plays under the same scoring system. The $1 million grand prize is open to anyone in the field, pro or amateur. The remaining $1 million in the pool goes to top finishers.
For 2026, the event expands to four days (July 16-19) at the Javits Center, up from three last year. Organizers say they've streamlined the scoring, enhanced gameplay, and built out the production for both in-venue audiences and global livestream viewers.
The Roster Is Stacked
Tom Brady is back to defend his title. So is UFC fighter Justin Gaethje, who finished second, and fan champion Matt Dennish, the Philadelphia teacher who became the breakout story of the inaugural event. All top 10 finishers from 2025 are expected to return.
New names joining the field include Rob Gronkowski, James Harden, and WWE superstars Cody Rhodes, Jey Uso, Rhea Ripley, and Liv Morgan. More athletes will be announced in the coming months.
The Brady vs. Dennish rematch alone is worth the price of admission. A seven-time Super Bowl champion against a schoolteacher from Philly, competing under the same rules, for the same prize. That's the kind of story that writes itself.
DICK'S Sporting Goods Enters the Picture
This is the business move buried inside the entertainment headline.
For the first time, Fanatics Games is offering in-person qualifying events, and they're happening inside DICK'S House of Sport locations. Four cities are on the schedule: Knoxville, Tennessee (May 9), Kennesaw, Georgia (May 30), Houston, Texas (June 13), and Boston (June 28). Fans compete in sport-specific challenges tied to the actual Fanatics Games format. The top three performers at each location earn a trip to New York to compete at the Javits Center.
For fans who can't make the in-person qualifiers, the video application process from last year is still available.
Why the DICK'S Partnership Matters
On the surface, this looks like a retail activation. DICK'S gets foot traffic at its House of Sport locations. Fanatics gets a physical qualifier pipeline. Everyone wins.
But zoom out and it's something more interesting. DICK'S is turning its stores into competition venues with real stakes attached. Not a pop-up demo. Not a free throw contest for a gift card. An actual qualifying path to a nationally visible, $2 million competition featuring some of the biggest athletes on the planet.
That's a different kind of value proposition for a retail location. It drives a specific, motivated audience through the door. It creates content. It generates local press. And if it works, it's a repeatable model that could scale to more House of Sport locations and more competitive formats.
What Fanatics Is Really Building
Strip away the celebrity names and prize money, and Fanatics is building something that didn't exist a few years ago: a competitive entertainment format where fans are the product, not just the audience.
Traditional sports fandom is passive. You buy a ticket, you watch, you go home. Fanatics Games flips that. The fans compete. The fans generate the storylines. A teacher from Philadelphia nearly beating Tom Brady is the kind of moment that no marketing budget can manufacture.
Last year's event helped sell out Fanatics Fest Saturday programming and contributed to the 125,000 total attendance. The games gave the festival something that panels and autograph sessions can't: genuine, unpredictable competition with emotional stakes.
For anyone in the youth sports, fan engagement, or live events space, this is worth watching. Fanatics isn't just selling merchandise anymore. They're building a sports entertainment ecosystem where participation is the core product. And with DICK'S now plugged into the qualifier pipeline, the infrastructure is starting to look like something that can scale well beyond one weekend in Manhattan.
Fanatics Fest 2026 runs July 16-19 at the Javits Center in New York City.
