Fanatics Sportsbook Launches Official App In Four States
Fanatics Sportsbook launched its long-awaited mobile sports wagering app on Wednesday, hitting another important milestone in its bid to be a competitive player in the U.S. sports betting marketplace.
The launch comes after approximately six months of beta testing in the four jurisdictions — Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Tennessee — where Fanatics is currently accepting mobile bets. The app, usable on both iOS for Apple and Android platforms, is now available in those four states. Fanatics Sportsbook’s recent $225 million acquisition of PointsBet’s U.S. holdings has provided market access to additional states, but there is no specific timeline for expansion into those markets.
The challenge now for Fanatics is to deliver on the potential of challenging online titans FanDuel and DraftKings for market share and clearly establish itself ahead of PENN Entertainment’s rebranding of its sportsbook to ESPN BET later in the fall.
Refinement through testing
One of Fanatics Sportsbook’s bigger selling points is the improvement of its trading desk both internally and through the PointsBet acquisition.
The beta testing period allowed Fanatics to evolve the Amelco technology platform from its original source code into a nimble trading desk in its base odds offerings. The recent acquisition of PointsBet, which uses Banach Technology as its platform, gives Fanatics the ability to integrate a second feed capable of providing competitive odds offerings across all marketplaces and expanding the volume and variety of offerings.
Fanatics also has an enhanced search platform, giving bettors the ability to pull up players by name and market offerings versus needing to scroll through the game’s market offerings. Additionally, the app’s algorithm will be tailored to individual users, recognizing and incorporating bettor preferences so that preferred players and markets will be more readily available while scrolling through screens.
With the upcoming NFL and college football season comes an increased emphasis on both traditional parlay markets and same-game parlay (SGP) markets. Fanatics has evolved this aspect of its app in a creative way, offering the ability to scan for multiple prop offerings in similar markets across a sport’s schedule. For example, a bettor who wants to construct a parlay of anytime touchdown scorers among wide receivers will be able to scan those markets rather than toggle in and out of games looking for those specific players.
Those SGP offerings will eventually evolve to include in-game SGP markets as well as cash-out offerings in further releases of the app heading into the start of the NFL season. Fanatics’ football testing in the beta period consisted largely of previously played games, but there has been rapid refinement during preseason play that will be reflected in app updates ahead of and throughout the regular season.
Earning FanCash and speedy withdrawals
Fanatics Sportsbook has a loyalty program in which bettors can accumulate FanCash through their wagers, which can be put toward free bets or the purchase of merchandise through Fanatics.
There are three tiers in building FanCash: A bettor gets 5% of their bet in FanCash for SGP wagers (i.e., a $20 SGP will yield $1 in FanCash), 3% for parlay wagers, and 1% for single-event wagers. Free-bet wagers made through FanCash will entitle the bettor to win the value of the wager but not the stake, which is standard among such plays.
The app will provide a “Withdrawal Tracker” in which bettors can follow the process of withdrawing funds. In relation to responsible gambling, bettors will have the ability to customize both wager limits and deposit limits, something Fanatics Sportsbook recommends users do. Those limits, once set, take immediate effect for bettors on the app.
