Iowa’s sports betting landscape has just been energized with the launch of the Fanatics Sportsbook mobile app, welcoming players across the state to a new platform for their wagering activities. The arrival of Fanatics in Iowa also heralds the phasing out of the PointsBet brand, which was acquired in August 2023 by FBG. This transition is seamless for the userbase as PointsBet customers are seeing their accounts—including usernames, passwords, balances, reward points, and responsible gaming settings—automatically transferred to the Fanatics Sportsbook system.
Moreover, the sports betting locale at Catfish Bend Casino, previously facilitated by PointsBet, will now step into a new identity under Fanatics Sportsbook. Enhancing the betting experience, new self-service kiosks provided by Suzohapp will be installed.
Iowa represents the 12th state in the Fanatics Sportsbook’s expanding portfolio, with the brand already established in diverse states such as Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia. It’s not only the online sphere where Fanatics has a presence; Pennsylvania and West Virginia also host retail betting venues.
But Fanatics’ ambitions don’t stop at sports wagering. In Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the company offers casino gaming through Fanatics Casino, though there are no explicit projections for the timescale of additional market entries and further brand integrations.
The inception of Fanatics into the Iowan market comes at a time when sports betting is thriving in the state. Recent statistics from December unveiled a handle of $282.7 million, a significant rise from the same month in the previous year, indicating a robust and growing appetite for gambling activities in Iowa. Of this figure, online betting contributed a whopping $258.3 million while retail sportsbooks added $24.4 million.
Revenue figures are equally impressive, showcasing a year-on-year increase of 28.9%—reaching $26.3 million in December. This rise also overshadows November’s tally by an astounding 86.5%. Digging deeper into the numbers, online betting dominated once again, driving $23.6 million of the revenue, with $2.7 million coming from in-person wagers.
This backdrop of expansion was unsurprisingly dominated by market leaders Diamond Jo Dubuque and FanDuel, which generated $7.2 million in earned revenue out of a $68.7 million betting handle. Trailing behind, but no less noteworthy, were Wild Rose in Jefferson paired with DraftKings, boasting $4.0 million in revenue from a $43.3 million handle. A third prominent pair was Wild Rose in Emmetsburg and DraftKings, with $3.0 million in revenue derived from $27.5 million in wagers.
When focusing on the now legacy brand of PointsBet, its collaborative footprint with Catfish Bend Casino left an imprint of $331,818 in revenue from a steady sum of $4.6 million in bets throughout December.
As the sports betting domain continues to soar in Iowa, the introduction of the Fanatics Sportsbook is a pivotal transformation. It reflects a broader trend in the gaming industry where acquisition and consolidation are shaping the future. Bettors in Iowa are now privy to a refreshed betting experience that promises to carry forward the legacy of its predecessor while embedding its corporate brand deeper into the American sports betting soil.
The shift towards Fanatics Sportsbook in Iowa exemplifies the dynamic nature of the sports betting industry, and it will be engaging to observe how this evolution affects the market dynamics, customer experiences, and overall the state’s sports betting ecosystem.
