Fanatics continues to expand its sports betting footprint across the nation after launching in Iowa, now the 12th state in which it currently operates after migrating the PointsBet platform to its own.
Live in the Hawkeye State
In the middle of last year, Fanatics agreed to purchase the U.S. assets of PointsBet, an Australian-based bookmaker and gaming company, for $225 million.
As part of that deal, Fanatics began a rebrand of PointsBet to “PointsBet, a Fanatics Experience” as a bridge before it received approval in those markets to migrate that platform to the Fanatics sports betting app.
After the deal was struck, Matt King, chief executive of Fanatics Betting and Gaming, said, “We are excited about what we are building at Fanatics Betting and Gaming and this acquisition accelerates our plans.
“We have a 10-year plan that focuses on the customer and not market share. We are going to acquire customers efficiently, allowing us to return savings to customers by investing in the customer experience at Fanatics Sportsbook and PointsBet, a Fanatics Experience.”
One of those markets just happened to be Iowa, where Fanatics launched last week, entering a congested online sports betting market that will be difficult to gain a foothold with 17 other mobile sports betting operators. Fanatics’ partner in Iowa is the Catfish Bend Casino and its customers will see a rebrand from the PointsBet retail sportsbook to Fanatics.
The Fanatics’ digital sportsbook is now available in Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and now Iowa.
It also has an iGaming presence in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The Iowa Market
The betting handle in Iowa dipped from $282.7 million in December to $259.4 million in January, according to the Iowa Gaming and Racing Commission. The win rate, or hold, was 8.5% generating $22 million in revenue for the online sportsbooks of which the state received just shy of $1.5 million.
Fanatics will have plenty of company in the Iowa market and Boston-based DraftKings is at the top of the food chain, generating a handle of $86.6 million, which produced $8 million in revenue.
FanDuel fell substantially short in terms of volume at $66.1 million. However, a healthy hold delivered $7.9 million in revenue, just $100,000 short of DraftKings’.
Caesars maintained its hold on third place in the Iowa market in January with a $31.8 million handle and $1.7 million in revenue. Newly-branded ESPNBET continues to penetrate its markets and wound up with a fourth-place finish, generating $16.7 million in wagers but a meager hold caused the company to make just north of $74,000.
BetMGM came fifth in Iowa in January with $14.7 million in wagers which produced $1.3 million in revenue. None of the other 12 online sportsbooks made over $1 million which provides some insight as to how highly contested the Iowa market has become.
In 2023, Iowa’s retail and online sportsbooks generated $2.4 billion worth of wagers last year with mobile sportsbooks accounting for over 91% of the total handle.
