FanCash links Fanatics Sportsbook to merch business and gives it a leg up
If you log onto the Fanatics merchandise website, you won’t find any mention of a sportsbook. If you search the site for ‘Fanatics Sportsbook’ you’ll land on a page full of gift cards and gear. Why? Because just like how legacy casino companies consider their sportsbooks to be amenities â ways to draw in customers â so does Fanatics.
The difference is Fanatics isnât so much using sports betting to bring customers to its brick-and-mortar locations. Instead, sports betting can drive consumers to buy more gear.
The companyâs core digital business is â and has been since the current iteration was founded in 2011 in Jacksonville, Florida â sports merchandise. Founder Michael Rubin has been capitalising on the fan experience for close to 15 years. And that phrase, âthe fan experienceâ, is as critical to the companyâs sportsbook mission as it is to any of its other businesses, whether that be team jerseys, trading cards or collectibles.
âThe goal is, I think you have to go all the way to the top of Fanatics to understand,â Matt King, the CEO of Fanatics Betting & Gaming, told iGB. âHow do you make the whole fan experience better? Itâs actually very hard. The love and hate you have for your team. You wait in line to get into a game. Itâs kind of fragmented everywhere.
âWhat we view as uniquely different from everyone, is we can create one digital platform for the whole user experienceâŠ. The goal is to relentlessly enhance the fan experience.â
Building Fanatics Sportsbook
At the start of 2023, Fanatics Sportsbook was really still more an idea than a reality. The company opened its first retail sportsbook in Maryland in January 2023. Today (5 September) it opened its latest one, at the Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City. Along the way, it purchased Amelco source code and hired a bevy of engineers so it could build out a proprietary platform. But the company had market access in only a handful of US states.
“Today, Fanatics Sportsbook announced the opening of a retail sportsbook location in partnership with Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City.”
Fanatics Sportsbook Partners with Ocean Casino Resort for New Retail Sportsbook Locationhttps://t.co/2F9HVoSHxI
â Alfonso Straffon đšđ·đșđžđČđœ (@astraffon) September 5, 2024
In June 2023, Fanatics announced that it was acquiring PointsBet USA. With that acquisition came entry into more than a dozen states. In August, Fanatics Sportsbook â or in some cases âPointsBet, a Fanatics Experienceâ â went live in eight states. A Fanatics Sportsbook of some kind is now available in 22 states. Fanatics Casino is available in four states.
Fanatics Betting & Gaming is the only major wagering company that doesnât have roots in brick-and-mortar casinos or daily fantasy sports.
FanCash the unifying product
The one thing that bridges the merchandise side of the business with the gambling side is FanCash. Referred to on the sportsbook site as âthe currency of sportâ, FanCash is unique to Fanatics. It allows consumers of any of the companyâs businesses to earn and spend FanCash on merchandise, collectibles and trading cards â or gambling.
âItâs interesting because the loyalty side is actually a really unique microcosm of the brand,â King said. âItâs [FanCash] probably the thing that has resonated the best with consumers. Your devotion is finally paying off and no one else can really deliver that.â
Ahead of the football season, Fanatics Sportsbook revamped its FanCash offering. Consumers now get up to 10% of their wagers in FanCash, win or lose. Basically, the bigger the bet and the longer the odds, the more FanCash is awarded.
FanCash = Brand recognition beyond the book
While companies like BetMGM or Caesars do offer rewards or loyalty points, many digital sportsbooks donât, leading a Fanatics spokesperson to quip that it âmakes us 10x more rewarding than other leading sportsbooksâ.
FanCash allows bettors to get a tangible product that will further, as King said, âenhance the fan experienceâ.
âThe second piece is that it is authentically ours,â King said. âWhen you talk to consumers about different brands in the space, youâre expecting to get gambling-related stuff, youâre not thought about as someone who can do more than that. So we have the brand recognition beyond sports betting.â
Ironically, a Fanatics spokesperson pointed out, even when other betting companies do jersey or merchandise giveaways, that merchandise is often made by Fanatics.
