Fanatics becomes an official NFL sportsbook

Earlier this year, the NFL’s sponsorship deals with multiple official sportsbooks expired. A new company has partially filled the void.

Via Bill King of Sports Business Journal, the NFL and Fanatics have struck a deal pursuant to which Fanatics will pay the league an undisclosed amount of money to attach The Shield to its stylized flag.

The deal is expected to be announced before the start of the regular season. Which makes sense. But for the degenerates who are firmly in denial about their degeneracy, no one is betting on preseason NFL games. The money starts to flow when the games that count start to be played.

Previously, FanDuel, DraftKings, and Caesars shared the “exclusive” sportsbook label, which turned the dictionary definition of the term on its head. (At one point, the NFL had seven “exclusive” sportsbook partners.) Per King, negotiations continue with FanDuel and DraftKings, which have become the Coke and Pepsi of American sportsbooks.

King explains that the sticking point for FanDuel and DraftKings has been the increase in the price for official streaming data from Genius. Absent a deal with Genius, the sportsbooks can’t do a broader deal with the NFL. (Obviously, Fanatics paid whatever Genius is looking for.)

Caesars, which apparently isn’t trying to do a new deal with the NFL, had previously been the RC Cola in the overall sportsbook market share. Fanatics seems to be stepping into that role, with a clear aspiration to eventually disrupt the two-company dominance on picking the pockets of people who think they can make easy money by betting on sports.

None of these companies would be so successful if they were losing money. The house always wins over the long haul, primarily because there are so many people (typically men under 25 without fully-developed frontal cortexes) who have deluded themselves into thinking they’ll be the ones to beat the house.