Gunfight At The iGaming Corral: FanDuel Biggest Draw Of America’s Best

In the All-American shoot-out to come out top dog in the relatively new and increasingly contested online sports betting market, FanDuel seems to be winning the gunfight hands down.

At least according to its parent company, Flutter Entertainment.

A just-released report by the Irish-origin Omnichannel says FanDuel has more sports betting market share by gross gaming revenue (GGR) in operating states than all its rivals combined – even compared to the mighty DraftKings and the Entain-MGM combo, BetMGM.

For now, FanDuel is the undisputed master of sports iGaming in the 15 states where it is currently operating, with over half the market’s GGR.

“We are particularly pleased with momentum in the US,” Flutter’s delighted CEO Peter Jackson recently commented.

“FanDuel [has] extended our leadership in online sports betting, claiming a 51 per cent share of the market and number one position in 13 of 15 states.

“We [FanDuel] remain firmly on the path to profitability in 2023, driven by our compelling customer economics and disciplined investment.”

Combined, FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM and Caesars have cornered 80 per cent of the US sportsbook market, which launched like a rocket when the Supreme Court overturned a long-standing ban on online sports betting with a landmark ruling in mid-2018.

Although supercharged by Pandemic lockdowns–when bettors surged from retail to online–and fuelled by billions of dollars of ad and promotion spend by these heavy-hitters over the intervening years, few, if any, of these state-of-the-art iGaming operations have turned a profit.

But now, this Q2, Flutter has reported that FanDuel has finally returned a positive contribution to the group’s EBITDA – some US$22 million (£18.57m/€21.99m).

Make no mistake; this is a major breakthrough in US online sports betting.

FanDuel is the first of the new US iGaming sports and casino cohort to report a profitable quarter.

And for Flutter this augurs well into the economic future.

In 2019, for example, FanDuel made up less than 10 per cent of group revenue. But if one extrapolates 2022 H1 financial stats, it is now bringing-in the equivalent of a third of GGR.

Nevertheless, despite the positivity, FanDuel still expects to lose around US$300 million (£253.22m/€299.87m) in the second half of this year, because of ongoing market-building spend in target states–such as California, Kansas, Ohio, Maryland and Massachusetts—where it has strategic plans to go live.

FanDuel expects 2023 to be the very first year when it will be “full-year-profitable”.

DraftKings, BetMGM and Caesars, again trailing, estimate they will have to wait longer, until at least next year’s Q4, when they can show off a ledger written in black, and not red, ink.

During this year’s H1, FanDuel had an average of 2.2 million monthly bettors – a 50 per cent year-on-year increase.

It may be more than two centuries since the United States enjoyed the benefits of trans Atlantic rule.

But for now, few can dispute that FanDuel is the king of American iGaming.

Published on:

Editorial Tags: