Fanatics Launches Sports Betting In 4 States: What It Means For The Sector

Leading sports company Fanatics has launched its Fanatics Sportsbook platform in four states, a move the follows the company being valued at $31 billion in December 2022.

What Happened: Fanatics announced the launch of the Fanatics Sportsbook in the states of Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio and Tennessee.

The official launch follows six months of beta testing, according to the company. The Fanatics Sportsbook app is live and available for download on both iOS and Android in the four states.

Among the features offered to users of Fanatics Sportsbook are a more personalized experience, a natively built app, withdrawal tracking, improved search functionality and a connected digital sports ecosystem.

Fanatics is also offering FanCash, a loyalty program that will reward users with a currency that can be used to buy team merchandise at Fanatics.com. Users can earn 5% FanCash on same game parlay bets, 3% FanCash on parlay bets and 1% FanCash on straight bets.

The launch of Fanatics Sportsbook has been highly anticipated and comes after the company acquired the U.S. business of PointsBet.

Related Link: 5 Analysts On DraftKings Q2 Results 

Why It’s Important: The public launch of the Fanatics Sportsbook in the four states follows recent industry news that PENN Entertainment PENN is partnering with The Walt Disney Company DIS to launch ESPN Bet later this year.

Fanatics and ESPN Bet could seek to acquire new sports betting customers that have yet to enter the sector and also take market share away from existing sportsbooks.

Ark Invest research associate Andrew Kim recently said the dominance of DraftKings Inc DKNG and FanDuel, a unit of Flutter Entertainment PDYPY, is likely to remain despite the increased competition from Penn.

“Despite Barstool’s eminence as a standalone media company, Penn’s Barstool Sportsbook failed to capture meaningful market share in U.S. sports betting, as measured by share of consumer deposits,” said Kim.

Barstool Sportsbook had market share of 4%  of the U.S. online sports betting market in June compared to 34% for DraftKings and 30% for FanDuel.

“If Penn could not win market share with Barstool, how will it fare with ESPN, a legacy media propriety battling a multi-year decline in market share?” Kim said.

Kim said he would be surprised if ESPN Bet was able to “penetrate the DraftKings-FanDuel duopoly.”

The acquisition of PointsBet gives Fanatics accelerated entry into several states and brings a built-in customer base. PointsBet U.S. had market share of 3.7% in September 2022.

DKNG, PENN Price Action: Shares of Penn Entertainment and DraftKings both fell Wednesday, in a move possibly related to the Fanatics announcement.

DraftKings shares were trading down 3.85% to $27.24 ahead of the close Wednesday, and Penn Entertainment shares were down 3.66% to $23.28.

Read Next: Benzinga Names Fanatics A Challenger Award Recipient At Inaugural Titans Sports Betting Event 

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