Fanatics Betting & Gaming has blazed a trail through the sports betting landscape as a relatively new player in the market and has recently begun operations in Arizona, Illinois and Kansas. The Fanatics’ sports betting app is now available in 95% of the addressable mobile sports betting market in the United States.
Booking in the Desert
As reported here at OddsTrader last month, the Arizona Department of Gaming approved the partnership between Fanatics Betting & Gaming and the Tonto Apache Tribe, allowing Fanatics access to the state’s sports betting market. And on April 4th, the aggressive gaming company that continues to gain a foothold in eligible markets all across the nation was accepting wagers in the Grand Canyon State.
Fanatics Betting & Gaming Chief Business Officer Ari Borod said in a joint statement, “We are thrilled to partner with the Tonto Apache Tribe and Mazatzal Hotel & Casino to bring the Fanatics Sportsbook to Arizona. Arizona is a state with tons of options for sports fans, from baseball to hockey, to golf to football to racing, making it the ideal destination for the most rewarding online sportsbook.”
Tribal Twists
The Tonto Apache Tribe had been partnered with Twin Spires but the Churchill Downs subsidiary has since withdrawn from the market creating a void that Fanatics was all too willing to fill. Fanatics’ recent entry into the Arizona market brings the total to 10 affiliated with tribal nations while the other eight are aligned with sports teams and other authorized entities.
“The Tribe’s partnering with Fanatics Betting & Gaming, a national leader in the sports betting space, will allow the Tribe to provide for the general welfare of our tribal members but will also benefit all Arizona citizens,” said Tonto Apache Chairman Calvin Johnson.
Fanatics Enters the Land of Lincoln
Fanatics made a savvy acquisition last year when it purchased the U.S. assets of Australian mobile sportsbook, PointsBet, for $225 million in June 2023. That strategic shift allowed the company to enter new markets that would have taken much longer to access.
One of those markets is Illinois, and now that the company has migrated all the PointsBet customers in Illinois to its platform, Fanatics is now officially live in the Land of Lincoln. Illinois was PointsBet’s most active market and it should be even more lucrative now that Fanatics is steering the ship.
“The acquisition of the US businesses of PointsBet has supercharged our expansion plans,” Matt King, CEO of Fanatics Betting and Gaming, said in a statement. “In addition to our migration of PointsBet customers and technology to the Fanatics Sportsbook and Casino platform, we have also added an incredibly talented team of passionate leaders from the ranks of PointsBet USA that have already made an impact on our business.”
Fanatics Live in Kansas
Fanatics has completed its migration of PointsBet customers in Kansas to its own platform. However, it should be noted that Fanatics not only obtained PointsBet’s customers but also its proprietary Banach Technology, all of which are integrated into Fanatics sports betting platform.
Kansas is just one of seven states that Fanatics has entered since February and now counts 19 states in which its mobile sports betting app has been launched. Those states include Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.
