Fanatics Launches Prediction Market Offerings in 10 States

• Fanatics Betting and Gaming CEO Matt King announced the launch of Fanatics Markets today on CNBC
• Fanatics Markets will debut in 10 states today, will be in 24 states by the end of the week
• Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin announced on Nov. 20 the company would launching a predictions market product

Fanatics is officially in the prediction market business.

Fanatics Betting and Gaming CEO Matt King today announced on CNBC that Fanatics Markets, the company’s new prediction market service, has been launched in 10 states. Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin announced on Nov. 20 the company would be launching prediction market services “in the following weeks.”

Fanatics Markets will be live in 24 states by the end of the week, King reported.

It’s What Customers Want

Fanatics Market will debut today in Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Utah. Nine more states will be introduced on Thursday, followed by the two largest markets of all, California and Texas, in the final five states on Friday, according to Sportico.

Fanatics Sportsbook does not offer sports betting in any of the initial 10 states.

“For us, the way we think about it is, what do fans want to do? We got into prediction markets primarily because when you talk to sports fans, this is one of the things that they’re most interested in experiencing and we know they want to do it through Fanatics. For us, this was a logical extension for something new that sports fans want to have access too,” King said during a CNBC interview.

Fanatics is the first of the major sportsbook operator to offer prediction markets through its own app.

Underdog and Crypto.com, a Commodity Future’s Trading Commission-registered exchange and clearinghouse, announced a partnership in September that allows customers to access sports event contracts through Underdog’s platform. Underdog currently offers prediction market contracts in 24 states throughout the U.S.

Rubin noted during the initial announcement Fanatics currently offers sports betting in 23 states, so there will be “27 states that we’re going to launch in.” This seems to imply that Fanatics will not offer predictions market contracts in states where it also offers sports betting, a similar tactic DraftKings and FanDuel will both implement ahead of their own prediction market launches.

DraftKings, FanDuel Likely Next to Enter Markets

Fanatics beat both DraftKings and FanDuel to the prediction markets. The companies announced their own prediction market services several months ago.

DraftKings Predictions will launch “in the coming months” as a standalone app. In late October, DraftKings acquired Railbird Technologies Inc, a federally licensed exchange designated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to enter the predictions market.

FanDuel’s own prediction market service, FanDuel Predicts, will be launched in December as a standalone app.

Both companies have announced they will be including sports event contracts in their offerings, but will not do so in states where sports betting is legal. Both also announced they will withdraw from the American Gaming Association due to their decision to offer sports event contracts.