US Operator Tracker Q1 2025: Fanatics increasing in stature among consumers

This, the sixth quarterly FairPlay Brand Perception Tracker for US sportsbooks, has seen a continuation of the market dominance of leading brands DraftKings and FanDuel, although there have been some inroads being made by the challenger brands.

A key success factor in growing regulated markets, such as the US, is a brand’s ability to convert users from awareness to favoritism to ensure more sticky return custom, and DraftKings has edged ahead of its rival FanDuel in Q1 2025 in this regard, taking a three-point lead in terms of ‘Awareness’, but translating that to a 5% advance for ‘Favoritism’. Bet365 has the best conversion rate to favoritism (58%) from usage amongst the challengers.

Earlier in the funnel, Fanatics has continued to grow its awareness, up 11% over the last two quarters, with 53% now aware of the brand. They have also increased regular usage by 9% over the same period with 20% now claiming ‘Regular usage’.  Bet365 and Caesars follow a similar trend, growing their ‘Awareness’ by 9% and 7%, respectively, since September 2024.

Brand leaders DraftKings, FanDuel, as well as BetMGM, remained static for brand awareness, implying established penetration among the US audiences already.

Looking at demographics, DraftKings captures significantly more market share for those aged between 41-50 against FanDuel (73% versus 52%), while the latter reverses this for those aged 61 and above. DraftKings also edges out its main rival on those with ‘Daily’ betting frequency.

DraftKings also leads on usage by those who regularly bet on NFL, college sports, combat sports, and soccer, with FanDuel 1% ahead for NBA bettors.

As has been demonstrated in previous surveys, across the board brands are struggling to carve a niche for brand perception metrics. BetMGM has pushed ahead of the pack on being regarded as ‘Fun’, over indexing by 3%, with no other leading brand ranking above their base for the metric.

In terms of feature perceptions, DraftKings has taken a clear lead on its product variety by bet type and sports over FanDuel, while also performing above expectations by 5% on ‘Best odds’. FanDuel is 4% above its base for ‘Price boosts’ and ‘Easy to use app’.

Significantly for its market share, Fanatics looks to be making a name as a strong provider of same game parlays, while ESPN Bet is establishing itself for its live betting and variety of sports offering, which could be led by its association with the prominent sports broadcasting arm.

Generally, looking at perception trends over time for key metrics such as ‘Same game parlays’, ‘Promotions, free bets and offers’, and ‘Best odds’, the two leaders of FanDuel and DraftKings have been static in recent quarters, but no chasing brand has managed to cut through and establish itself for these either.

About FairPlay Sports Media

EGR and FairPlay Sports Media have partnered to bring a data-led, quarterly report on brand perception of leading firms in the sector.

These insights are produced by FairPlay Sports Media senior customer insights manager Peter Morris. He has more than a decade of experience working in market research, starting his career working at agencies Ipsos Mori and then 2CV, with a particular focus on brand and marketing research projects.

In 2018 Morris joined what was then oddschecker, focusing on UK product and marketing insight. Since then, he has expanded his role, heading up customer insight within FairPlay Sports Media, providing intel across all their operations and territories.