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Fanatics has agreed a multi-year deal to become an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League (NFL), taking a sponsorship slot that has been empty since the league’s betting agreements with FanDuel, DraftKings and Caesars expired at the end of March.
The arrangement is non-exclusive, so the NFL can still sign other operators before or during the 2026 season. Financial terms have not been disclosed. Neither side has issued a formal announcement, and one is expected before the season opener on 9 September.
Fanatics Casino is part of the same agreement and gains official status in the four states where it operates: Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
What the partnership covers
The deal gives Fanatics Betting and Gaming access to NFL media inventory, including in-game advertising and sponsorship placements with the league’s broadcast partners. It also covers NFL hospitality assets, premium fan experiences and activity around the Super Bowl.
Those betting rights sit on top of a commercial relationship that already runs through most of the league. Fanatics handles e-commerce for 29 of the NFL’s 32 teams and in-venue retail for 16 of them, and in April it added official on-site retail rights for the league’s marquee events. The sportsbook deal turns a merchandise supplier into a betting sponsor across the same set of teams and venues.
Fanatics’ betting footprint
Fanatics Betting and Gaming opened its first retail sportsbook in 2023, at the Washington Commanders’ stadium in Maryland, and scaled its online business through the acquisition of PointsBet’s US operation. Fanatics Sportsbook is now live in more than 20 US states and Washington, D.C.
The company has also secured registration with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), which opens the way into Canada’s largest regulated online market.
Its betting product is built around FanCash, a rewards currency that converts wagering activity into credit for merchandise. An NFL sponsorship gives that model league-level visibility during the months when US sports betting demand is at its highest.
FanDuel and DraftKings are still in talks
FanDuel and DraftKings continue to negotiate new agreements with the NFL. The cost of official league data has been reported as the obstacle. Genius Sports distributes the NFL’s official data and streaming feeds, and price increases attached to that inventory have slowed the discussions. Caesars has not pursued a renewal.
Non-exclusivity matters here. Under the previous structure the league sold a small number of sportsbook slots at premium rates. A non-exclusive deal with Fanatics gives the NFL a named betting partner in place for kickoff while keeping the door open to FanDuel and DraftKings, and it removes the scarcity that supported the old pricing.
The market behind the sponsorship
The American Gaming Association (AGA) estimated that Americans would legally wager around $30 billion through US sportsbooks during the 2025 NFL season, an increase of 8.5% on the previous year. The NFL is the largest single contributor to US handle, and league sponsorship is one of the few marketing assets that reaches the whole betting audience at once.
Operator spending on that audience has been under scrutiny as growth has slowed and acquisition costs have risen. Research published this month found that younger US bettors increasingly treat sports betting as a form of investing, a shift that changes how operators price both acquisition and retention.
Fanatics enters the season with the sponsorship its two larger rivals let lapse. Whether the NFL adds either of them alongside Fanatics before 9 September, and at what price once the data costs are settled, will show how much the league’s betting inventory is still worth.
Source: National Football League
