Fanatics vs Underdog isn’t two sportsbooks going head to head the way Fanatics vs FanDuel would be. It’s two companies that each spent 2024 through 2026 pushing into new regulatory territory — and picked opposite strategies to get there. Fanatics bought its way into sports wagering. Underdog tried building a sportsbook of its own, backed off, and built a federally licensed exchange instead.
How Fanatics Got Its License: Acquisition, Not Application
Fanatics Betting and Gaming opened a small sportsbook app in October 2023, testing out of a physical book at FedEx Field in Tennessee and Ohio. The footprint that actually matters came a few months later: PointsBet first agreed to a $150 million sale to Fanatics, DraftKings countered with $195 million, and Fanatics ultimately closed the deal at $225 million in April 2024 — absorbing PointsBet’s US sportsbook, iGaming, and advance-deposit wagering operations along with the state licenses attached to them. As of August 2026 that gives Fanatics a sportsbook in 23 states plus Washington D.C., with Missouri the most recent addition in December 2025, and a much narrower online casino in Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
How Underdog Tried the Opposite Path — and Reversed Course
Underdog took the harder road first: build a real-money sportsbook from the ground up rather than acquire one. It didn’t stick. In December 2025, Underdog closed that sportsbook nationwide, settling every open wager in North Carolina rather than keep chasing additional state licenses. Instead of doubling down on sports wagering, Underdog redirected that regulatory effort somewhere else entirely: in July 2026 it launched Underdog Predict, a prediction-market exchange built on its own Designated Contract Market, Derivatives Clearing Organization, and Futures Commission Merchant registrations from the CFTC — the full federal stack, not a partnership riding on someone else’s exchange.
Two acquisitions, one direction each. Fanatics spent $225 million acquiring an existing sportsbook operator. Underdog spent 2026 building its own federal exchange infrastructure rather than buying into one. Neither route is inherently more legitimate — they just produce very different products at the end.
Is Fanatics or Underdog Legit — and Is Either Safe?
Fanatics’ legitimacy case rests on inherited but real state sportsbook licenses, the same regulatory category DraftKings and FanDuel operate under. Underdog’s case is messier and, in a way, more interesting: it paid the New York State Gaming Commission $17.5 million in March 2025 over 2020–2022 contests that regulators said exceeded its old permit, exited New York as part of that settlement, and then went on to win its own set of federal CFTC registrations for Predict a little over a year later. A fine paid and a new federal license both point to a company regulators are actively engaging with, not one operating unnoticed.
On safety, the two companies answer to different kinds of oversight. Fanatics’ 23 sportsbook states each have a named gaming regulator, geolocation enforcement, and mandatory responsible-gaming tools baked into the app. Underdog’s DFS products run under each state’s DFS-exemption law, while Predict answers to the CFTC as a derivatives exchange — a federal regulator built for commodities and event contracts, not consumer sports betting specifically.
Fanatics vs Underdog, side by side
| Fanatics Sportsbook | Underdog | |
|---|---|---|
| How it got here | Acquired PointsBet’s US business for $225M, closed April 2024 | Built and then closed its own sportsbook (Dec. 2025); built Predict from scratch (July 2026) |
| Product today | Sportsbook (23 states + D.C.); casino in MI/NJ/PA/WV only | DFS (Classic Pick’em, Pick’em Champions) + Underdog Predict exchange |
| Regulatory basis | State sports-wagering licenses (inherited) | State DFS-exemption law + CFTC DCM/DCO/FCM registrations for Predict |
| Notable regulatory history | None major since the PointsBet acquisition | $17.5M New York settlement, March 2025; exited NY |
| Can you bet against the house? | Yes, where licensed | No — DFS scores against a projection line; Predict trades event contracts |
| Age gate | 21+ where licensed | 18+ most states; 19+/21+ where required |
Which One for Who
Someone who wants a straightforward wager against the house — a spread, a moneyline, a same-game parlay — needs to be in one of Fanatics’ 23 licensed states, because Underdog doesn’t offer that product anymore at all. Someone who wants pick’em DFS or is curious about the newer event-contract category should look at Underdog’s Classic Pick’em, Pick’em Champions, or Predict — each with its own state footprint, none of them a sportsbook stand-in. The two companies aren’t really competing for the same search intent once you separate what each one actually sells.
Neither app is a plan to make money — a sportsbook wager, a DFS entry, and an event contract all carry structural costs to the person on the other side of the platform. 21+ for Fanatics Sportsbook, 18+ or the state’s higher gate for Underdog, and 1-800-GAMBLER either way.