Fanatics could nearly triple advertising expenditure across its gambling business during 2027 as it attempts to challenge FanDuel and DraftKings for leadership of the US sports-betting market.
The privately owned sports group expects to spend approximately US$350m promoting its gambling operations this year. Michael Rubin
, Fanatics chairman and chief executive, said its advertising budget could rise to between US$800m and US$1bn next year.
“We’re going to spend a lot more money in marketing next year than we had thought we were going to spend,” Rubin told Bloomberg. “We’re saying, how do we close the gap, and how do we really grow our market share?”
Fanatics estimates that it controls approximately 10% of the US sports-betting market, leaving it a distant third behind Flutter Entertainment-owned FanDuel and DraftKings.
The proposed expenditure would support Fanatics’ wider betting and gaming division rather than its sportsbook alone. The business also operates online casino products in four regulated states and has expanded into prediction markets through Fanatics Markets.
Fanatics entered US online sports betting in 2023 before accelerating its expansion through the acquisition of PointsBet’s American operations. It now operates its sportsbook across more than 20 states.
Rubin said the economics of the US market had become more difficult as revenue growth slowed in mature jurisdictions, fewer states moved to regulate sports betting and prediction markets increased competition for customers.
“Revenue on a per-state basis has hit a wall in fully regulated states like Pennsylvania, New Jersey or New York,” he said. “The second thing is new states are regulating at a slower pace than you would have thought and the third thing is that prediction markets come out of nowhere.”
Fanatics expects group revenue to reach approximately US$14bn during 2026, representing growth of around 40%. Its sports-gambling operations are forecast to account for approximately US$2bn.
Revenue from the group’s merchandise and collectibles businesses gives Fanatics greater capacity to fund customer acquisition than operators reliant entirely upon gambling. Its private ownership also allows management to pursue longer-term market-share growth without the quarterly earnings pressure faced by publicly traded rivals.
Rubin said Fanatics remained committed to becoming the largest gambling operator in the US. The proposed advertising budget would place its expenditure closer to that of the two established market leaders and could intensify competition for customers across sports betting, online casino gaming and prediction markets.
TAGS: Fanatics, Fanatics Sportsbook, Michael Rubin, US Sports Betting, Sports Betting Advertising, FanDuel, DraftKings, Prediction Markets, Online Gambling, Gambling Marketing
