Fanatics Sportsbook is heading into football season the way most NFL teams would like to: with momentum, a game plan, and some promising offseason acquisitions.
- Fanatics Sportsbook has gained significant momentum ahead of this year's football season, nearly doubling its online sports betting market share in the U.S.
- The company is differentiating itself through customer-friendly features like the expanded “Fair Play” refund policy and loyalty rewards tied to its broader sports merchandise business.
- Fanatics is trying to leverage a growing footprint, creative marketing campaigns, and integrated offerings like Fanatics ONE, as it aims to activate its sports fan "ecosystem."
Numbers recently reported by state gaming regulators suggest that momentum is there, and Fanatics ("America’s fastest growing sportsbook") is rolling out a plan and securing partnerships to help achieve its goals, which differ somewhat from other online sports betting operators in the U.S.
That is because Fanatics does do sports betting, yes, but that’s not all it does when it comes to sports. The betting arm of the company is attached to a broader body that includes merchandise and collectibles businesses, which is why Fanatics calls itself a “global digital sports platform.”
So, sports betting is something Fanatics does, but it’s not the only thing. And yet, Fanatics appears to be moving up the pecking order of online sports betting sites in the U.S.
Your old sportsbook could never.
— Fanatics Sportsbook (@FanaticsBook) August 18, 2025
Switch to America’s fastest growing sportsbook for football season to unlock our Gameday Guarantee, FanCash and FAIR PLAY™ FIRST HALF injury protection.
Winning Hits Different Here. pic.twitter.com/gUIVzCDQRj
Data compiled last week by investment bank Citizens showed Fanatics' share of sports betting-related gross gaming revenue in the U.S. hit 8% in July, up from 4.8% in July 2024. It was also good enough for third place in market share among online sportsbook operators (albeit a distant third; DraftKings and FanDuel had GGR share of 34% and 37.8%, respectively).
Those numbers suggest Fanatics, which is now live with online sports betting in 22 states and the District of Columbia, has a podium position in its grasp. This football season will now be its second with its current scale.
Kevin Hennessy, vice president of communications for Fanatics, told Covers that winning for the company looks like a few different things, one of which is having the best product available.
“And we feel like we're there, we've caught up with the industry,” Hennessy said.
Among other things, Fanatics Sportsbook has added more betting markets and improved its in-play wagering capabilities, Hennessy added. While Fanatics isn't the only online sportsbook beefing up its offerings for football season, giving bettors what they want when they want when they want it is always a challenge.
According to data compiled by Citizens, Fanatics Sportsbook almost doubled its share of online sports betting-related revenue in July, to 8%. That makes Fanatics a (granted, distant) third among U.S. OSB operators. pic.twitter.com/1tX1pgnNmt
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) August 22, 2025
Despite the OSB boom, in iGaming market share, Fanatics is further down the pecking order. The company's online casino operations accounted for 4.3% of GGR last month, according to Citizens, which was lower than BetMGM, BetRivers, and Caesars. Even so, that was a significant improvement for Fanatics Casino (live in four states) compared to a year earlier, when its iGaming market share was 1.5%.
But sports is Fanatics’ thing, and it’s in sports where Fanatics has fought its way on to the podium.
For the week ended Aug. 17 in New York, for example, Fanatics' mobile sports wagering handle exploded to $147.3 million, well up from $32.9 million the week prior. For that same week, the biggest online sportsbook operator in the U.S., FanDuel, reported $117.3 million in handle.
While New York sports betting regulators reported the surge in action was largely due to a single bettor, that bettor was clearly persuaded to place a significant amount of wagers with Fanatics.
Clearly, though, there is a cost to some of that success. Fanatics managed approximately $2.7 million in gross gaming revenue from that mobile sports wagering, while FanDuel generated $14.2 million.
Who here likes refunds?
Fanatics, however, isn’t afraid of a little generosity. That could be true for both its whales and minnows.
The operator swooped into “save” more than 500,000 bets for users last season with its “Fair Play” policy, which can refund player prop bettors in the event of an injury. By Fanatics’ estimate, $54 million in similar prop bets were lost at other sportsbooks, such as DraftKings, which has since introduced a very Fair Play-like policy (albeit with cash "credits").
This NFL season, Fanatics is expanding the Fair Play policy to the first half of a game. So, if Tyreek Hill or another player that’s been backed to go over their yardage total goes down in the first half, and doesn’t return, a Fanatics bettor could be in line for a refund.
The policy may grind the gears of the “a bet’s a bet” crowd, but it’s there for the social media generation who can clamor for refunds on any given day and for any given reason. Having a stated policy for what will and won’t be refunded could tamp down some of the whining; if a player goes down in the third quarter, sorry, you’re out luck, and you were warned in advance. But you did at least have some insurance for the first half.
All for ONE and ONE for all
Fanatics has also rolled out a “Gameday Guarantee” for 26 college and pro football game days through October. The policy will refund new customers $100 in “FanCash,” the company’s “loyalty currency” that can be spent on merch, collectibles, and bonus bets, for losing wagers. Something for existing customers has been promised as well.
Furthermore, a company-wide loyalty program has gone live at Fanatics, Fanatics ONE. More FanCash and the possibility of unlocking “exclusive benefits and experiences,” such as access to “Fanatics Fest," are available through the program.
Mood.
— Fanatics Sportsbook (@FanaticsBook) August 22, 2025
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#FanCashFriday
🕯 Forever 🕯️
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Activating the Fanatics “ecosystem,” its 100-million strong database of sports fans, is another way of winning for the company, Hennessy said. Fanatics ONE gets that ecosystem moving.
“If you happen to buy a lot of jerseys, or if you are a frequent sports bettor, or you're a person that frequently buys Topps cards, we now have this uniform loyalty program that basically can bring something for the sports fan, no matter how you want to look at it,” Hennessy said. “It's also introducing people to those kind of things. Because, for sports bettors, they may not have collected cards since they were kids, but we can show them things like Fanatics Fest or expose them to things like the national card show.”
And, to help communicate the above to new and existent customers, Fanatics has enlisted the help of the NCAA gymnastics championship-winning and Paul Skenes-dating Livvy Dunne.
Hennessy called the campaign a bit of fun, but “cinematic” as well. Fanatics putting Dunne in a bath tub on a football field to explain things is the same tactic used by director Adam McKay in The Big Short, albeit that was using actress Margot Robbie to break down mortgage-backed securities.
“We just had to put a Fanatics spin on it and put [the tub] at the 50-yard line at the Rose Bowl,” Hennessy said.
