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PANINI AMERICA PRODUCES FIRST NFL TRADING CARD OF DENVER BRONCOS
FIRST ROUND DRAFT PICK TIM TEBOW
ARLINGTON, Texas – As NFL experts speculated where college football’s most heralded player, former University of Florida Quarterback Tim Tebow would be selected in the 2010 NFL Draft in New York City, Panini America, a subsidiary of The Panini Group, the leading global publisher of sports and entertainment collectables and an NFL/NFLPA licensee was prepared to print Tebow’s card coming out of the first round on Thursday night.
The first official NFL Rookie Card went into production hours after Tebow was drafted and is set to arrive in stores by mid-May in packs of Panini’s 2010 Prestige Football. The card will be one of the most coveted trading cards the industry and collectors have seen in years. Panini will also produce a limited edition version of Tebow’s Rookie Card featuring a shot from Draft night that will also be included in packs of 2010 Prestige Football.
“Being the special player and public figure that he is, Tebow being drafted in the first round makes him the bona fide No. 1 guy out of the gate, more collectible than Sam Bradford,” says Scott Prusha, Panini America’s marketing director. “People didn’t know where he was going to land and he landed in the first round on a very collectible team as the second quarterback taken. He’s going to be a collecting superstar.”
As the leading global publisher of sports and entertainment collectables, Panini has license agreements with three of the major U.S. sports, including the NFL/NFLPA, NHL/NHLPA and an Exclusive Trading Card and Sticker Partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA). Panini’s other partnerships include an exclusive license with FIFA for the 2010 and 2014 World Cup, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and with four-time NBA Champion Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers. Panini also has a successful collectibles business with consumer brands including DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon, Disney’s Toy Story 3, Hannah Montana and High School Musical, and Warner Brothers’ Harry Potter.
ABOUT PANINI:
The Panini Group, established almost 50 years ago in Modena, Italy has subsidiaries throughout Europe, Latin America and the United States. Panini is the world leader in officially licensed collectables and is the leading multi-national publisher of comics, children’s magazines and Manga in Europe and Latin America. Panini has distribution channels in more than 100 countries and employs a staff of over 800. For more information visit us at www.paniniamerica.net or www.paninigroup.com.