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The 2026 NFL season has officially kicked off, and for Fanatics, it’s yet another football campaign to impact and enhance the fan experience.
For Fanatics Betting and Gaming, it began with the launch of Fanatics Sports & Casino, a single app that was launched last week that gives fans one destination to bet, trade or play and much more.
Fanatics Betting and Gaming CEO Matt King called last night’s start to the season “Christmas Eve” and referred to Thursday night’s bout between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams in the first-ever NFL game in Australia as “Christmas Day.” That’s because King couldn’t be more excited for how his sector of the wide-ranging Fanatics ecosystem continues to grow.
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“My belief is we’re building a set of businesses here throughout the entire fan journey to make being a fan better, and I think as we do that, we will be a beloved brand. If we can make your fan journey actually better because you’re doing it end to end with Fanatics, I think there’s a huge power to that,” he told FOX Business in a recent interview.
For fans, Fanatics Sports & Casino unites everything that Fanatics Sportsbook, Fanatics Casino and Fanatics Markets has to offer in a single experience, where FanCash, the brand’s loyalty currency that can be redeemed in a variety of ways, is accumulated into one balance and integrated into the Fanatics ONE loyalty program.
From the coast of California to the concrete jungle of New York, the app automatically tailors the experience to each customer’s location, allowing for a seamless journey that was a priority in the eyes of King.
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“I think there were two things really important to us before we launched the single app,” he explained. “One is exactly what you’re talking about: the regulatory complexity that exists is large-growing between state-regulated products, federal-regulated products. What state is available where and underlying restrictions. I never want to force that complexity on consumers. I want to make it as simple and easy as possible. So, the geo-aware nature was incredibly important.
“Then, I would say the second thing is it was important before we put it all in one place that you tried to make the proposition as consistent as possible. So, if you think about the ability to earn FanCash, we’re launching Fair Play in prediction markets, which is a prediction-market first, and the nuances are admittedly a little different. But the general points we wanted to make sure are consistent because those aspects of the proposition are what drove us to become the number three sportsbook in the country very quickly.”
Fanatics Sportsbook is the fastest growing sportsbook in the U.S., and one of the main reasons is due to the innovation King knew he and his team needed to come up with. One of those key components is FanCash, which no competitor has. Customers are able to use it in 20 different ways from purchasing game tickets, to betting directly on games, to filling out their memorabilia and collectibles. Over 50% of new customers state that FanCash is a primary reason they stay with Fanatics Betting and Gaming.
Then, there’s the introduction of “Fair Play” in 2024, seeing a pain point with sports betters when it came to players being ruled out due to injury, especially for games in the NFL. Fanatics has since become the first to offer “First Half Injury Protection” as well as “Second Half Injury Protection” at no charge to the bettor as part of the new “Fair Play Max.”
With the 2026 season underway, Fanatics is helping out fans more with Forward Progress Protection, where the dreaded quarterback kneel, or running backs losing yards late in games, won’t hurt the bettor so long as that player hits his over on rushing prop bets.
A prime example of “Fair Play” came in the NFL’s opener, as it was available for Sam Darnold’s injury just five snaps into the Seattle Seahawks’ season, as well as Patriots new star A.J. Brown suffering a high-ankle sprain in the second half. Fanatics were the only ones who offered it for both sportsbook and prediction markets.
Competitors have done their own similar bet protections since Fanatics came out with “Fair Play,” but King said he’s “really proud” to see that because it means they’re the leader – not the follower.
“To see people copy, almost rip-off verbatim, what you’re doing is kind of entertaining,” he said. “But look, from day one, we knew we needed a reason for people to want to play with us. I think our brand is the best in the industry, but I want to give people a very clear, concise reason why we’re better. And I think we’ve given a couple of those.
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“I also think a lot of it stems from the foundational belief of I would always rather give a dollar back to a fan than spend a dollar on marketing. Obviously, we need to spend money on marketing to make people aware of stuff we do. But the philosophical point is – and Fair Play was the best example of this – if I can find a place to reinvest money where other sportsbooks put in their pocket back to the fans, particularly in moments where we know they’ll share those moments with their friends, those are the points of leverage we look for. Fair Play is a great example because, hey, we’re sitting at the bar together. My bet wins, your bet loses even though it was the same bet because of Fair Play, I’m going to shove it in your face and laugh at you for not using Fanatics. And then ideally you’re going to use Fanatics the next week.”
Fanatics Betting and Gaming also made an impact in the betting and prediction market world by becoming the first to ban credit cards from providing funds, offering universal self exclusion for its products, and joining the ProhiBet Bad Actor Program to punish bettors for harassing athletes.
And as King put it, “Building brands today is making your customers your advocates and build your brand through that army of advocates,” which he sees far better than running TV ads with celebrities in it. But Fanatics did get involved with beloved actor Luke Wilson, Pro Football Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson and college gymnastics national champion Livvy Dunne for their season-long NFL campaign called “Fanatics Town Hall.”
The ad is built on what King, his team, and the rest of the Fanatics ecosystem does each day: putting everything into their experience just like fans put everything into their love of their sports and teams.
“It’s incredibly exciting because we get to be a reflection of the fan’s passion,” King said. “Fans love everything about sports and the bar that we hold ourselves to is let’s bring that same passion and make the experience better. It’s the old expression from the comic books, right? ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ We have an incredible set of assets within the business. We have an incredible set of relationship. And we have an incredible responsibility to the fans to make the experience good as it can be.
“We wake up every morning thinking about how we can do that and we go to bed every night thinking did we actually make it a little better today. That drives us everyday.”
It’s a new season, it’s a new look for Fanatics Betting and Gaming, and the realm of possibilities of where this brand can go in terms of impacting the fan experience continues to grow.
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