Mark Wahlberg has moved from autograph sessions to actual ownership in the sports card business, teaming up with Las Vegas Raiders minority owner Michael Meldman to launch Paradise Card Breaks Wahlberg Edition. The venture has already started hosting pack-opening experiences around Las Vegas and is scheduled to open a full storefront in Downtown Summerlin in 2027, complete with live breaks, fan events and a media component.
Wahlberg and Meldman partnered with Paradise Card Breaks owner Mark Laird on the business, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Wahlberg lives at the Summit Club in Summerlin.
Wahlberg said he has collected cards since childhood and now collects with his sons. He said the goal of the new venture is to bring athletes in to do card breaks and build experiences around the hobby for fans, adding that card-opening events help connect people and make collecting something families can share together.
A Night at Wynn Field Club
Last week, Wahlberg opened card packs at Wynn Field Club during the Raiders-Buffalo Bills game at Allegiant Stadium, the venue described by the Review-Journal as a $2 billion stadium. Wynn Field Club sits in the stadium's north end zone, and the event was a collaboration between Paradise Card Breaks Wahlberg Edition and Card Vault by Tom Brady. The event menu listed three packages priced between $7,500 and $12,500, each including a mix of card boxes to open and alcoholic beverages.
Brady, a CardVault co-owner, is expanding the chain across the country. Wahlberg also counts fellow Raiders minority owners Egon Durban and Ari Emanuel as friends; Durban has separately joined an NBA Las Vegas expansion bid group that includes Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie and her husband Bill Laurie, per the same Review-Journal report.
Team Ownership Talk, Decades in the Making
Wahlberg said he has not bought into a team himself, though it is something he has discussed for decades, including during the NBA's expansion bid process. He said he was first contacted about team ownership as far back as the 1990s, a detail that underscores just how long he has circled the sports business before finally building something of his own in Las Vegas.
Athletes Are Buying In, Not Just Signing Autographs
Wahlberg's move fits a broader shift described by The Athletic: professional athletes are increasingly investing directly in brick-and-mortar card businesses rather than just showing up for appearances, autographs and conventions, according to nytimes.com. Brady's CardVault chain already has 17 locations nationwide and is aiming for more than 100. Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton has partnered with Dave & Adam's Card World on Card Culture by Lewis Hamilton, which opened its first shop in Germany in July, and he has noted there are more than a thousand card stores in the United States compared with just a fraction of that number across the rest of the world. NBA center Mo Bamba is opening his own Mo Bamba Sports Cards & Collectibles near the University of Texas in north Austin.
Livestreaming platforms such as TikTok Shop, eBay Live and WhatNot have fueled the rise of card-breaking as its own business category, according to sportico.com.
Live Breaks Turning Into Serious Revenue
Hot Hands Sports crossed $1 million in revenue just 12 months after launching its livestream in May 2025 and is now generating roughly $400,000 a month, per Sportico's reporting.
Marketplaces are racing to keep up. StockX recently added sports trading cards to StockX Live, launching across NBA, NFL and MLB categories with plans to add more sports, and its Verified marketplace has seen Topps sales jump 81% year over year with resale prices up 26%, according to stockx.com. StockX Live lets buyers purchase a spot in a box or case that is opened on camera, then receive whatever cards match their spot — the same live-break format now anchoring Wahlberg's Las Vegas venture. CardVault by Tom Brady runs a similar playbook, hosting monthly trade nights, athlete signings, live breaks and special appearances at participating stores including its Las Vegas location, per cardvaultbytombrady.com.
As Paradise Card Breaks Wahlberg Edition works toward its 2027 Downtown Summerlin opening, it joins a growing list of athlete-backed shops betting that fans want more than a pack of cards off a shelf — they want to watch the box get opened, ideally with a celebrity standing next to them.
