Fanatics Sportsbook styles itself as the most rewarding sportsbook for customers. For the challenger brand in the U.S. market, 2024 was the most rewarding year yet.
Now, after a banner 12 months, COO Scot McClintic says the company is gearing up for “a series of big swings in 2025.”
“We’ve been in evolutionary mode; now, we’re going into revolutionary mode,” McClintic told SBC Americas.
To market relevance and beyond
It’s evident why Fanatics’ executives are happy with the sportsbook’s progress after what McClintic calls the fastest state-by-state roll-out in U.S. online sports betting history. As it took over PointsBet’s American licenses state by state, Fanatics went from zero to 95% addressable market penetration in just under two years.
Last year saw the sportsbook grow from around 0.5% U.S. market share to approximately 5%, per Eilers and Krejcik Gaming (EKG) numbers. The sportsbook ended 2024 ranked third in the market by EKG’s 2H24 testing report, ahead of the likes of established British book bet365 and established casino brands like BetMGM, Caesars and Hard Rock.
Ultimately, the research firm described Fanatics as “one of the challenger brands capable of making a dent in the U.S. duopoly” of FanDuel and DraftKings.
“We’ve done a really good job to close that gap,” acknowledged McClintic. “And we’re close enough now where we can really start to put our foot on the gas.”
No overnight success
The sportsbook calls itself “the first true sports brand” in online betting and it’s certainly true that having the name recognition of the most well-known sports merchandise retailer in the U.S. doesn’t hurt.
But while that prior familiarity with sports fans can provide a springboard for success, you hear betting executives say time after time that two things win: product and experience. Fanatics took its time to ramp up its sportsbook operations and the second half of 2024 is when they reaped the reward for their patience.
“We knew that being a second mover had a lot of pros and cons,” explained McClintic. “If we’re going to try to win in this space over the next decade — and that’s just not words — we’ve got to win on products and operational excellence.
“So, we spent the first two years of this journey setting up the infrastructure and iterating on the technology. We invested very heavily in data in the early days. And we’ve been benefiting from all the strategic investment bets we made over the last few years. We feel we exited 2024 in a place where we can do things with our technology and our product that very few other operators can do because we took all the pain in the first years.”
Treating bettors like fans
That doesn’t mean Fanatics Sportsbook hasn’t been leaning into its sports-endemic history. Key to their approach and to their 2024 success, McClintic says, has been treating bettors like fans.
As well as iterating on its core product offerings like its promos, same game parlay and data-driven customer profiling, Fanatics differentiates itself via the way it intrinsically ties together betting activity and sports fandom rewards.
The FanCash rewards program gives bettors up to 10% back on every wager regardless of result. The USP is that, unlike some of its competitors, that cashback isn’t just available to be spent on more gaming or resorts experiences.
“In the beginning, it was just merchandise, and now the ecosystem is expanding and it’s going to continue to expand…” noted McClintic, adding that the number and variety of available rewards is going to “explode” in 2025 and beyond.
“We give you bonus bets, profit boost tokens, FanCash for merch, access to in-person experiences and merch drops, very exclusive merch opportunities. It goes on and on. That’s very unique compared to other programs out there… And that’s what loyalty is: creating a robust, compelling program that rewards customers for staying with you.”
As well as rewarding sports fans/bettors, Fanatics has also tried to empathize with them.
Its Fair Play feature voids player prop bets for both singles and parlays in numerous sports when the player gets injured before a certain stage of the game and cannot return. That was a decision made by Fanatics’ leadership based on the fact that having wagers ruined by unfortunate events “sucks,” explained McClintic. The feature proved so popular it became a staple of the offering.
“We all know what it feels like when it happens,” he noted.
An open runway
After the building blocks put down in recent years and the progress of 2024, what those “big swings” McClintic referenced turn out to be remains to be seen. But wherever the sportsbook is a year from now, its leadership is confident of turning its small steps into a giant leap.
“I feel confident that a year from now, I don’t even know what the product is going to look like,” McClintic concluded. “A lot of what we’re already thinking for 2025 would have been thought impossible a year ago.
“Granted, we’re a challenger brand and we’re constantly paranoid, I think the right amount. We’re happy with the progress, but we’re at mile five of the marathon, so we’re not conflating progress with mission accomplished.”
