Fanatics Sportsbook Ends Beta Testing, Officially Launches Full Online Sportsbook

• Fanatics Sportsbook today ended its six-month beta test
• Full online sportsbook is now available for download in Massachusetts, Ohio, Maryland, and Tennessee
• The sportsbook is now available for all users

The Fanatics Sportsbook has officially ended its beta testing period and is now fully available for all customers in four states.

After six-months of beta testing, Fanatics Sportsbook announced today its full sportsbook app is now available for download in Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Tennessee on the iOS and Android platforms. Fanatics began beta testing its sports betting app in Tennessee in early March. The sportsbook was limited to Fanatics customers by invite only.

The full Fanatics Sportsbook will feature additional offerings for all customers, an enhanced search feature, and a new “discover” page with top sports betting picks for users, marquee games, trending bets, and promos.

Fanatics Officially Launching Full Online Sportsbook

The sports betting app will offer “faster, easier, and a more rewarding sports betting experiencing,” according to Scot McClintic, chief product officer of Fanatics Betting and Gaming.

“After 6 months of beta testing, we are excited to officially launch the Fanatics Sportsbook product to the public. We are laser focused on solving pain points facing customers by offering a faster, easier, and a more rewarding sports betting experience. The strategic patience to build a product for the long-term has given us an opportunity to redefine a customer’s expectation of what a sportsbook should be. With the Fanatics Sportsbook product foundation built and wholly owned, customers should expect unparalleled speed of feature improvement, delivery, and innovation,” McClintic said in a press release.

Fanatics Sportsbook touted its recent acquisition of PointsBet’s U.S. assets as a way to “supercharge” its sports betting engine by integrating the best parts of PointsBet’s tech platform. The sportsbook will also leverage PointsBet’s quantitative driven trading models from Banach Technology and its state-of-the-art risk and trading platform, according to a release.

FanCash is Backbone of Loyalty Program

The Fanatics Sportsbook will offer legal sports betting markets on professional and college football, basketball, hockey and baseball, as well as golf, tennis, motorsports, boxing, MMA and more.

The sportsbook will also allow users to earn Fanatic’s “FanCash,” which can be converted dollar-for-dollar into bonus bets and can also be used to purchase team merchandise at Fanatics.com. Customers will earn 5% FanCash on same game parlays, 3% FanCash on parlay bets, and 1% FanCash on straight bets.

Fanatics has touted its ability to integrate its merchandise business into its sports betting business as a major advantage over other sports betting operators. While state regulators have frowned upon Fanatics merchandise purchases for Fanatics Sportsbook bonus bet promos, the FanCash program should prove to be a useful customer acquisition and retention strategy for the sports betting operator.

Fanatics Expanding Throughout Country

At a recent New York State Gaming Commission meeting, regulators mentioned that Fanatics Sportsbook has 12 pending licenses in states throughout the U.S., including Colorado, Iowa, New Jersey, and Virginia.

A Fanatics Sportsbook representative declined to comment on pending licensure in other states.

Fanatics is hoping for a transfer of PointsBet’s New York online sports betting license as quickly as possible. PointsBet’s New York online sports betting license was one of the jewels in the Fanatics acquisition of the company’s U.S. assets. In late June, Fanatics improved its bid to PointsBet for $225 million, topping DraftKings’ final offer of $195 million for the company’s U.S. assets.

According to the acquisition details provided from the original Fanatics/PointsBet deal in May, Fanatics will begin acquiring PointsBet assets for three states this month. It’s unknown what state assets will first be turned over to Fanatics. PointsBet will hand over access to three more states on a rolling basis until all U.S. entities are acquired by Fanatics Betting and Gaming by May 2024 at the latest.

New York State Gaming Commission Chairman Brian O’Dwyer revealed recently the commission will evaluate Fanatics for suitability before making a recommendation on the transfer of the PointsBet license.

A final recommendation on the license will likely be made during the commission’s September meeting.