There are three major companies that account for most of the market share of sports card collectibles at this time. Each have at least one of the 4 major North American professional leagues under exclusive contract at this time. Topps has the rights to Major League Baseball (MLB), Upper Deck has the rights to the National Hockey League (NHL), while Panini has the rights to both the National Football League (NFL) and National Basketball Association (NBA).
While these companies have exclusive licensing rights to Team logos and names for a specific league, some do still produce cards for leagues they don’t have. People refer to these products as unlicensed, and they are often less sought after.
These companies all produce product lines under other brand names you may be familiar with from the past as well. For example, Topps owns the rights to the Bowman brand and uses is to introduce prospects to collectors prior to them making the Major Leagues.