EKG LINE: FANATICS MAKES A MOVE IN CASINO
A weekly newsletter with gambling industry insider insights from the Sports Betting & Emerging Verticals team at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming
FANATICS HITS THE BIG GREEN BUTTON ON ONLINE CASINO
The chart above, taken from our latest Online Casino Monitor, shows Fanatics’ iCasino progress in Pennsylvania, per our estimates.
After a long period in development, Fanatics has recently ramped up its U.S. online casino plans.
Its new-ish standalone casino app is fast, clean, and visually sharp—but it’s clearly a version 1.0: limited feature depth and a lack of exclusive content put it a tier below market leaders.
That said, Fanatics looks willing to open up the marketing coffers in support of it.
The headline $2mm FanCash giveaway is being pushed hard on social media—and the headline 500 free spins or $1,000 in casino credit rebate offer goes toe-to-toe with FanDuel and DraftKings on generosity.
Bottom line: there’s a new entrant in the U.S. online casino space—and they’ve come to compete.
2. PODCAST: SHOULD SPORTSBOOKS RETHINK THEIR MEDIA STRATEGIES?
Host Brad Allen is joined by SportsGrid COO Adam Kaplan to discuss:
Building a media sportsbook from the outside in
How FanDuel is benefiting from its RSNs
How to use influencers in marketing
Listen to the episode here.
3. TRENDING UP / TRENDING DOWN
Trending up: BetMGM parents. Its co-owners enjoyed share price jumps this week following upgraded guidance from the operator. Entain stock climbed 15% on Monday, with MGM up 8%.
Trending down: Retail betting. FanDuel will close its retail sportsbook inside PHX Arena in Arizona less than four years after it opened. The closure continues the decline of U.S. retail betting, which generated ~$500mm in GGR in 2024, down from ~$700mm in 2021.
4. NUMBER TO KNOW: TENNIS IS KING OF LIVE BETTING
Ninety percent of tennis wagers come via live betting, according to figures from Entain.
Thats the highest among major sports and “no other sport comes close,” the operator said.
In fact, tennis attracted more live bets than football at BetMGM in each of the last three years, and trails only basketball for total live wagers.
Tennis accounts for around 6% of U.S. betting GGR according to IL data, though the true figure is likely lower, as IL reports parlays separately (58% of GGR) and tennis tends to underindex on parlays given its heavy lean toward live betting.