History
Benito and Giuseppe Panini were operating a newspaper distribution office in Modena, Italy in 1960, when they found a collection of figurines (stickers attached with glue) that a Milan company was unable to sell. The brothers bought the collection and sold them in packets of two for ten lire each. They sold three million packets. Having had success with the figurines, Giuseppe founded Panini in 1961 to manufacture and sell his own figurines. Benito joined Panini the same year. Panini sold 15 million packets of figurines in 1961.[17][18][19] The following year, 29 million units were sold, and brothers Franco and Umberto Panini joined the company in 1963.[17] Umberto Panini died on November 29, 2013, at the age of 83.[20] In 1966, Giuseppe founded a professional volleyball club that would later become known as Modena Volley.[21]
The company became well known in the 1960s for its football collections, which soon became popular with children. Rare stickers (figurine) can reach very high prices on the collectors' market. Some popular games were invented which used stickers as playing cards.
In 1970, Panini began publishing L'Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio Italiano (The Illustrated Guide to Italian Football), after purchasing the rights from publishing house Carcano. Panini also published its first FIFA World Cup trading cards and sticker album for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, in addition to using multilingual captions and selling stickers outside of Italy for the first time.[22] Initiating a craze for collecting and trading stickers, Panini's stickers were an instant hit, with The Guardian stating in the United Kingdom, “the tradition of swapping duplicate [World Cup] stickers was a playground fixture during the 1970s and 1980s.”[23] Another first for Panini, in the early 1970s, it began introducing self-adhesive stickers as opposed to using glue.[17]
In 1986, Panini created a museum of figurines, which they donated to the city of Modena in 1992.[24][25] Panini begins assembling each World Cup squad for their sticker album a few months before they are officially announced by each nation, which means surprise call-ups often do not feature in their album. A notable example of this was 17-year-old Brazilian striker Ronaldo, who was called up for the Brazil squad for the 1994 FIFA World Cup.[26]
In May 2006, Panini partnered with The Coca-Cola Company and Tokenzone to produce the first virtual sticker album for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The album was viewable in at least 10 different languages, such as Portuguese, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish.[27] For the 2014 World Cup, three million FIFA.com users took part in the Panini Digital Sticker Album contest.[28] Panini developed an app for the 2018 World Cup, where fans could collect and swap virtual stickers.[29] Five million people gathered digital stickers for the 2018 World Cup.[30]
The classic football stickers today are complemented by the collectible card game Adrenalyn XL, introduced in 2009.[31] In 2010, Panini released a UEFA Champions League edition of Adrenalyn XL,[32] containing 350 cards from 22 of the competing clubs, including defending champions FC Barcelona. Beginning in 2015, Topps signed a deal to produce stickers, trading cards and digital collections for the competition.[33] The fourth edition of Panini FIFA 365 Adrenalyn XL was released for 2019, featuring top clubs, teams and players.[34]
In January 2009, Panini acquired an exclusive licence to produce NBA trading cards and stickers, effective for the 2009-10 NBA season.[35] On March 13, 2009, Panini acquired the U.S. trading card manufacturer Donruss Playoff LP. With it, Panini inherited Donruss' NFL and NFLPA licences.[36]
In March 2010, Panini acquired a licence from the NHL and NHLPA.[37] The 2010-11 ice hockey season was the first in five years that had more than one company creating cards, with Upper Deck producing their own NHL cards.[38] In July 2010, Panini acquired a licence to create an official sticker collection for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London 2012.[39]
In 2014, Panini made cards for that year's FIFA World Cup, and did the same for the 2018 edition, albeit with price hikes for packets across the world. Dubbed the “Panini Cheapskates” in 2018, a couple from Oxford won fans all over the world on social media by filling in their 2018 World Cup sticker album by drawing in each player.[40]
During the 2018 World Cup, Panini produced an average of 8 to 10 million card packages per day.[41] In 2018, Panini signed a deal with the English Premier League to produce cards under licence for the 2019–20 season.[42]
Some of Panini's releases in 2019 included collections of movies Avengers: Endgame[43] and Toy Story 4,[44] and the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.[45]
Panini's license with the Major League Baseball Players Association expired at the end of 2022, which meant they could no longer produce baseball cards of players covered by the Players Association union contract.[46] Panini has continued to make baseball cards since their license with the MLBPA expired, with the ability to only feature individuals not covered by the Players Association (typically retired/deceased players, or minor league players). These have been called "pajama cards" by collectors, as the player uniforms have been edited to remove team logos and trademarks of Major League Baseball, giving the appearance of athletes wearing pajamas. [47]
In October 2023, Panini became the Official Trading Card partner of EuroLeague.[48]
In May 2025, Panini became the Official Trading Card partner of all three divisions (as well as the EFL Cup and EFL Trophy) of the English Football League starting for the 2025-26 Season.[49]
In March 2026, it was announced that the NWSL and the NWSLPA had entered a multi-year partnership with Panini to produce trading cards, digital collectibles on Panini’s blockchain and an official sticker collection.[50]
