Fanatics Betting and Gaming has won the race to be the first sports betting operator to stand up its own separate prediction market product.
The company launched Fanatics Markets on Wednesday in ten states, but the website promises more to come.
“For years, Fanatics has given fans new ways to enhance their fandom through team merchandise, collectibles, tickets, gaming, events and more,” said Fanatics Betting and Gaming CEO Matt King. “Now, with Fanatics Markets, we’re giving fans a safe, and intuitive way to engage with the moments that move sports and culture, and to pick a side and profit along the way if their prediction is correct.”
“Crypto.com was the first to launch sports prediction markets, and our reach continues to grow through innovative partnerships with top-tier platforms such as Fanatics,” added Crypto.com Global Head of Predictions Travis McGhee. “We could not be more proud to be the partner of choice for Fanatics, and together we will provide fans with a safe and compliant way to access prediction markets.”
10 states to start, 24 in total
The first batch are mostly small population states with minimal to no real-money gambling options:
- Alaska
- Delaware
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Maine
- New Hampshire
- North Dakota
- Rhode Island
- South Dakota
- Utah
The most notable exception on that list is Delaware, which legally offers both online sports betting and online casinos, but does so under a monopoly model with the lottery. The current partner in that model is BetRivers. Rhode Island similarly has a monopoly online offering controlled by Bally’s.
The second round of 14 states billed as “coming soon” by Fanatics are:
- Alabama
- California
- Florida
- Georgia
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Nebraska
- New Mexico
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- South Carolina
- Texas
- Washington
- Wisconsin
The offerings currently only feature sports, but the website promises that contracts available to users will expand to include pop culture, technology, finance and the weather in the future.
Fanatics acquired Paragon Global Markets
Fanatics announced a partnership with Crypto.com last month to start offering the site’s contracts. At the time, it was unclear how this partnership would come to fruition. For example, PrizePicks and Underdog have integrated their prediction market partners’ offerings into their existing products. Fanatics is instead offering a standalone app, which makes sense given Fanatics Markets is serving states where Fanatics Sportsbook is unavailable.
At one point, Fanatics had formed a company to look into obtaining some of the licensing necessary through the National Futures Association (NFA) to do business directly with prediction markets. However, it managed to resolve that issue through acquisition instead.
The company acquired Paragon Global Markets this past summer. The company is an introducing broker registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and registered with the NFA, setting up the company to launch Fanatics Markets.
While prediction markets proved to be divisive enough of a topic for FanDuel and DraftKings to resign as members of the American Gaming Association, Fanatics Betting and Gaming remains a member of the trade body even though it has beaten the other two to launch in the hotly contested new vertical.
