The Arizona Department of Gaming announced that Fanatics Betting & Gaming, in partnership with the Tonto Apache Tribe, has been approved for an event wagering operator license to operate in the Grand Canyon State.
Desert Launch
Fanatics Betting & Gaming can now claim 17 sports betting markets with the recent addition of Arizona to its growing footprint. The cost of business in the desert comes with an $850,000 license fee and $150,000 renewal every year thereafter. Fanatics is now the 18th mobile sports betting operator to enter the Arizona market along with 25 brick-and-mortar locations.
The partnership between Fanatics and the Tonto Apache Tribe follows a confluence of events that serendipitously put the two together at the right time. Fanatics initially partnered with a Tucson-based Indoor Football League club called the Sugar Skulls.
However, the Skulls failed to realize the gaming operator planned to install a retail sportsbook in its facility, which immediately excluded the partnership from getting a sports betting license because their facility’s seating capacity was too low. Arizona’s regulations stipulate that retail sportsbooks are only allowed in sports venues of over 10,000 people.
This did not go over very well and the football organization filed a restraining order against Fanatics from securing an event wagering license in Arizona once the remaining licenses were put back on the block earlier this year. Fanatics, on the other hand, had been in search of a partner since they parted company with Sugar Skulls in October.
Opportunity for Partnership
Meanwhile, TwinSpires, partners with the Tonto Apache Tribe, began shuttering its sportsbook operations throughout the country to focus on its horse racing category. Its Arizona operations were effectively terminated in the middle of December 2023 leaving the Tonto Apache Tribe without a sports betting platform operator.
The timing could not have been better, as Fanatics was in search of a tribe to gain access to the Arizona market while the tribe needed an operator in search of a license. The two ultimately joined forces and now this partnership is the latest to join the sports betting battle in the desert thanks to the license recently granted by the Arizona Department of Gaming.
Betting Sizzles in the Desert
Sports betting in Arizona has increased in popularity as evidenced by the record-breaking $70.9 million in revenues generated in January. The previous high of $67.7 million was set only a month earlier but, when comparing year-over-year revenue reports, we find that January 2024 was nearly 50% higher than January 2023.
The handle of $706.4 million was the second-highest in the 29 months since mobile betting has been active in the state. The record of $713.2 million registered in November 2023 remains the busiest betting month in Arizona’s sports betting history.
Shift to Online Platforms
Although the state boasts more in-person sportsbooks than mobile sports betting platforms, the latter is responsible for 98.6% of all wagers placed in the Grand Canyon State, which follows a pattern throughout the nation. Mobile sports betting routinely generates at least 90% of the sports betting activity.
Bill Bradley, a former sports betting industry writer said, “Retail establishments only make up about 10 percent of actual betting in a state. It’s online that is the bulk of the betting. Now that everything is available on your app, they’re opening the retail sportsbook online to reach a wider audience.”
