FanDuel opened its first legal sportsbook last year and things have gone really well for the company since then. Though the fantasy sports betting business is still its bread and butter, FanDuel hopes that it will soon have sports betting as the core of its business. This is mainly because the demand for sports betting is continuing to increase as more states open up to legal sports betting.
FanDuel has been at the forefront of the sports betting wave. When the Supreme Court legalized sports betting in 2018, the very same month FanDuel was bought by Irish bookmaker Paddy Power Betfair, currently known as Flutter Entertainment.
This acquisition was quickly followed by FanDuel opening a sportsbook at Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey. This was just the beginning as the company opened more sportsbooks in New York, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Iowa. FanDuel offers legal mobile betting currently in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Indiana will soon follow these three states.
This is a big earner for the company as New Jersey’s revenue from legal sports bets beat Nevada’s in May 2019. New Jersey earned $318.9 million while Nevada brought in only $317.4 million. With its 50 percent market share in New Jersey, FanDuel has a big piece of this pie.
This is a far cry from the dark days of 2015 and 2016 when FanDuel and its rival company DraftKings faced multiple legal challenges from various states for running their fantasy sports betting business. The legal troubles stopped when the Supreme Court lifted the sports betting ban.
Political Predictions
FanDuel is not resting on its laurels. For a possible hint at what the company is moving on to next, one just has to look at the company’s origins. Starting out FanDuel was HubDub, a political prediction site. People would make wagers on political results, though technically political gambling is banned across the US.
In a statement, Matt King, FanDuel CEO, said
We would love to offer politics. Frankly, we like to offer games that everybody loves to play. Our parent company, Flutter Entertainment, does a huge business on the Betfair exchange with political betting. So the reality is it’s just a question of: Will it be allowed from a regulatory perspective? We are working on a couple things that might be more free to play, but will certainly tie into the election.
While nothing is finalized on political betting as of now, FanDuel is focusing on entering as many states as possible.
