“We don’t have to build everything ourselves to build something effective. Strategic partnerships with Docebo and OpenSesame, combined with internal development, allowed us to stay compliant, move quickly, reduce administrative complexity, and improve the learner experience.”

Erin Soles
Learning & Development Lead, Fanatics

The Challenge

A reactive model in a complex regulatory environment
Before 2025, Fanatics’ approach to compliance training was very reactive. Erin Soles, L&D Lead at Fanatics, said: “We were assigning training when a new regulation came along, when we had a new business need surface, or when our legal or HR teams identified a gap and said, it’s an emergency, we need training for this.”

When one topic becomes twelve courses
Anti-harassment training was the clearest example of where that model broke down. Fanatics operates in multiple U.S. states including New York, California, Washington, Illinois, and Connecticut, each with distinct legal requirements that vary depending on whether the learner is a manager or an employee. In year one, the team deployed roughly 12 different versions of similar training to ensure compliance. Managers supervising employees across multiple states had to complete redundant courses. Reporting was fragmented, and learners were confused about why they were being assigned duplicates.

The administrative cost was real, but so was the human cost.

“Instead of a nice, streamlined compliance experience, we had a lot of fragmentation, both on our side and from the learner perspective. It was clear we needed to come up with something more scalable and strategic.”

Erin Soles
Learning & Development Lead, Fanatics

For Erin, the stakes were straightforward: every hour spent managing compliance logistics was an hour not spent building something that actually moved the business forward.

The Solution

Fanatics adopted a hybrid compliance training process and content strategy: curated content from OpenSesame through Docebo’s Content Marketplace for legally required training where speed, regulatory accuracy, and scalability are critical, paired with custom-developed content for topics tied directly to Fanatics’ policies, risk areas, and operational realities.

The decision came down to resource reality. “Our learning teams at Fanatics operate lean, and that reality really forces us to be strategic about where we invest time and development resources.” That meant being intentional about what to buy versus what to build, and finding a partner model that could support both.

The team accesses OpenSesame content in two ways: self-service through the Content Marketplace when they know exactly what they need, and through a curated partnership model, collaborating with Docebo’s content consulting team when they need expert guidance on what will meet specific regulatory and audience requirements.

“By using the ready-made compliance content from OpenSesame where it’s appropriate, we freed up our time to focus more on our strategic compliance roadmap, and on internal development where a topic is Fanatics-specific or high-risk enough that it really needs to be specific to our audience.”

Erin Soles
Learning & Development Lead, Fanatics

That partnership proved decisive for their three biggest compliance priorities:

Anti-harassment training

Working with Docebo’s content consulting team, Fanatics selected the SAI360 Anti-Harassment and Discrimination US Comprehensive course, a self-select role and region format that adapts content, duration, and context based on the learner’s selections. One course replaced all 12 versions. Managers no longer completed redundant training. Reporting simplified. And learners felt the difference: “I received a lot of feedback that people enjoyed the course. They felt like it was interesting and easy to complete.”

Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) safety training

For the annual safety learning plan covering a large portion of their employee population, Fanatics worked with Docebo’s content consulting team to identify OpenSesame content aligned to OHSA requirements, then blended it with three internally developed modules covering Fanatics-specific safety protocols. The result: regulatory alignment, operational relevance, consistency across locations, and enterprise-level reporting, all within a single learning plan.

EU AI Act compliance

When the EU AI Act came into scope, the team didn’t have months to prepare. “That one kind of snuck up on us and took us by surprise. We very quickly needed to curate some AI training for impacted employees.” They selected OpenSesame content focused on responsible AI use, deployed it through Docebo, and added a policy attestation component to reinforce accountability and support documentation. The whole process moved fast, without sacrificing governance.

The results

The shift from reactive to strategic changed how the L&D function operates at Fanatics and what it’s able to deliver.

Compliance coverage without compliance complexity

One adaptive course now serves the entire enterprise for anti-harassment training. The fragmentation is gone. Managers complete one experience. Reporting is clean. And the learner experience is measurably better. “This shift really improved our compliance coverage and also improved the learner experience.”

Speed when it counts

When the EU AI Act came into scope, Fanatics was ready. The combination of OpenSesame’s catalog and Docebo’s deployment infrastructure meant they could move in days, not months. They deployed training to impacted employees quickly while maintaining governance and documentation.

A hybrid model that scales with the business

By being intentional about what to curate versus what to build, Fanatics freed internal development capacity for high-risk, Fanatics-specific content where customization genuinely adds value. The compliance program now covers more ground with less administrative overhead.

A better first impression for learning

Compliance is often the first thing employees experience in an LMS. At Fanatics, that experience is now more engaging, more relevant, and less burdensome. “Over the past year, we really focused on working smarter and not harder. We partnered strategically with OpenSesame and Docebo, and the results were simpler administration and a much better experience for our learners.”

“Ultimately, this hybrid approach enables us to support our businesses as they grow, protect the enterprise, and uphold our brand promise: to relentlessly enhance the fan experience.”

Erin Soles
Learning & Development Lead, Fanatics