Counterfeit sports merchandise is becoming more common as replicas become harder to distinguish, and official products get significantly more expensive. US authorities seized more than $40 million USD in fake sports gear before the most recent Super Bowl alone — and now, it’s not just NFL fans being targeted.

More than 100,000 online conversations over the past year reveal a growing concern about counterfeit NBA merchandise — and new data from InGame.com reveals some fanbases are taking a bigger hit than others. Read on for InGame.com’s revelation.

According to a new study by InGame.com, the Dallas Mavericks fanbase rank 12th with a total of 3,284 online conversations on counterfeit sports gear in the last year. Of the 3,284 conversations, 17% are negative, while just 10% are positive.

The Mavericks fanbase’s conversations on counterfeit sports gear are happening in Texas, California, Florida, New York and Colorado in that order. The frustration over counterfeit jerseys, hats, and collectibles are widespread. The Mavericks fans are also among the biggest victims of fake merchandise scams online — a growing problem risking both fans’ trust and wallets.

When it comes to the Dallas Mavericks fanbase, it’s a mixed bag of emotions. The Mavericks fanbase’s frustration about the Luka Doncic trade has been apparent, and the potential anger towards counterfeit sports gear hasn’t helped the existing emotions.

Either way, the Mavericks fanbase can’t change the past and can only accept the present to move forward. The Mavericks surprisingly won the first overall pick at the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery, and are likely to select Duke star Cooper Flagg, a small forward and a shooting guard who played college basketball from 2024-25.

The Dallas Mavericks fanbase can detect counterfeit sports gear by looking at a product’s price, official tags and product codes, accuracy and finish of details, terminology, retailer, branded packaging, tags with barcodes and embroidered logos.

It’s impossible to avoid counterfeit sports gear, as such gear has become an illegal, multi-million-dollar industry in recent years. However, it’s possible to detect a good quality counterfeit item, as such item can eventually grow to be poor quality and fail to last long as opposed to an official or original item.