Fanatics Rolls Out Standalone Casino App

Fanatics rolled out its long-expected stand-alone online casino platform in its four operating states. Its product can now be found in New Jersey, West Virginia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. 

While technically online casinos are also legal in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Delaware, all of these states have barriers to entry. In both Delaware and Rhode Island, the state has chosen to award a monopoly to one chosen online casino operator. In Rhode Island, the state awarded its only license to Bally’s, which also has a monopoly on brick-and-mortar licenses in the state.

In Delaware, where technically the Delaware State Lottery office actually conducts gaming operations, the state has recently switched to BetRivers as its official partner, replacing 888 Gaming.

Connecticut, which only offers tribal gaming for its land-based casino choices, also allows one skin each for the Mashantucket and Mohegan Tribes and one online sports betting skin for the Connecticut lottery. 

Unsurprisingly, Mohegan Sun chose FanDuel as its sports betting and online casino partner, while Foxwoods chose DraftKings. This left the Connecticut lottery, which chose Fanatics as its sports betting partner. However, due to vagaries in the law, Fanatics is not allowed to offer online casinos in the Nutmeg State since the compacts the state negotiated with the tribes kept the online casinos with the tribal casinos only. 

In that sense, Fanatics now operates in all four of the states where it can legally do so. However, since these states awarded licenses based on competition and not monopoly, they are often entering rather crowded waters. There are 30 online casinos in New Jersey, 23 online casinos in Pennsylvania, 15 online casinos in Michigan, and 11 online casinos in West Virginia, which has a much smaller population of just 1.7 million.

In all of these states, highly entrenched and well-funded operators like the previously mentioned DraftKings and FanDuel have carved out large market shares. Other top-notch casino operators like BetMGM and Caesars Palace Online regularly spend tens of millions of dollars on promotional and advertising for their online casino bonuses and products.

Therefore, it remains to be seen if Fanatics is entering this highly competitive industry too late. However, it is essential to look at their performance in the highly contested online sports betting industry, where they managed to grow their market share from just 0.5% to 5% last year against these same entrenched industry titans. 

They managed this mainly on the back of a well-thought-out and well-received sports betting app that has been heralded by bettors both big and small, as well as a smart ROI-driven advertising and marketing campaign driven by their database of sports betting fans from their early business selling sports apparel and merchandise.  

Whether they can capture lightning in a bottle the second time and seize a meaningful share of the online casino market in any of these four states will depend on their app and execution. And to start on the right foot with that initial phase of rollout, they have decided to award $2 million in FanCash between now and the end of June.

Every ten dollars wagered earns you a drawing ticket, and then every Thursday, the casino draws $250,000 in winners. The Top Prize each week is $25,000, with the rest divvied up amongst smaller winners. 

The company has partnered with Light & Wonder, Wazdan, White Hat Studios, IGT, and Evolution for its live dealer offerings. It also produces some great in-house content from its Fanatics Gaming Studio, which has produced games like Fanatics Fire Roulette. 

And with $2 million in FanCash up for grabs, those lucky enough to hit a weekly $25,000 top prize could walk away with a Tom Brady autographed Super Bowl ticket or a Juan Soto game-worn glove from Game Four of the World Series, or at least cover a good chunk of it. 

Fanatics has proven before that they can play with the big boys, and with their $2 million FanCash giveaway, they are signaling that a little tussle over market share doesn’t scare them. But giants like FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetMGM didn’t get where they are by walking away from a street fight either.  

If Fanatics can replicate their playbook from their huge wins in sports betting last year, they could soon be a force to be reckoned with in at least a few of these states. The question is, will a better mousetrap of an app and some glitzy promotions be enough to win over bettors who, in some cases, have spent the last decade wagering with the same online casino operator?