FanBuzz scores with the Bulls’ and the Wizards’ stores

FanBuzz, a provider of e-commerce services, is launching retail web sites for two professional basketball teams, the Chicago Bulls and the Washington Wizards. FanBuzz will provide web site development, back-end fulfillment, and customer service for the Chicago Bulls store at http://bulls.store.fanbuzz.com and the Wizards store at http://wizards.store.fanbuzz.com. FanBuzz already provides e-commerce services to the Boston Celtics.

The teams have e-commerce arrangements already through the NBA, with links from their home pages to the shopping sites. But these sites will allow the teams more control over content and merchandise, says Roy Seinfeld, president of FanBuzz. These sites, too, will be linked from the teams’ home pages.

Seinfeld says that as part of the e-commerce agreement, the teams will market their sites, but marketing details haven’t been worked out yet.

Seinfeld says FanBuzz, which also operates the e-commerce portion of ESPN.com, has other professional sports team deals in the works, although he wouldn’t reveal details. He says the teams fit with FanBuzz’s expertise. “Our sweet spot has always been sports apparel,” he says. “We have the inventory already. All we have to do is supplement it.” FanBuzz is a subsidiary of ValueVision Media, which owns and operates ShopNBC and ShopNBC.com.