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State of Play’s TL;DR
- After the World Cup, top online sportsbooks are looking to the NFL season as the next major test.
- They are worried that the emerging prediction market industry could take a serious bite out of profits beginning in September.
FanDuel, BetMGM, and PENN Entertainment say the World Cup helped drive strong summer betting activity, but executives are pointing to the NFL season as the real battleground.
With prediction markets growing fast and major operators sharpening their products, the race for customer attention appears set to intensify ahead of Sept. 9.
The NFL preseason begins next week, and sportsbook operators are using the final stretch before kickoff to position for what PENN CEO Jay Snowden called “quite the arms race this year.” His warning centered on expected marketing and advertising pressure as rivals compete for football bettors.
A key test for operators
Executives from PENN, BetMGM, and Flutter Entertainment, which owns the nation’s most popular sportsbook, FanDuel, all said the World Cup boosted activity across their platforms this summer. But they also made clear that NFL betting will be the more important measuring stick.
Snowden said competitors are likely to engage in “very aggressive, irrational” spending on marketing and advertising. BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt described the current environment in blunt terms, saying, “Competition is fierce,” while pointing to prediction markets as a “primary macro impact.”
Flutter CFO Rob Coldrake said the World Cup helped FanDuel reach its highest-ever traditional sports betting volume for June and July. He added that FanDuel is also seeing “really strong volumes” for MLB, but said performance will ultimately be determined by the football season.
PENN also cited strong user engagement during the World Cup. Truist analysts said 70% of the company’s online sportsbook users placed at least one World Cup bet, and 45% of those bettors were first-time soccer bettors.
Prediction markets and super apps add another competitive layer
Front Office Sports points to prediction markets as a growing force as the NFL ramp-up begins. Jefferies analysts said the World Cup generated a record $20 billion in prediction-market volume. Around Super Bowl LX, the story says platforms, including Kalshi, Polymarket, Robinhood, Crypto.com, and Underdog, combined for more than $1 billion in prediction market trading volume.
That comes as sportsbook operators try to keep users inside broader product ecosystems. Flutter said FanDuel Predicts will be integrated into its unified “one app” before the regular season, combining traditional sports betting, casino, fantasy sports, and prediction market products. DraftKings has also launched a one-stop-shop “super app” that includes its prediction market platform, DraftKings Predictions.
For bettors, the immediate takeaway is that the NFL season may bring heavier promotion, tighter competition, and more overlap between sportsbooks and event-contract style offerings.
Based on reporting by Ben Horney for Front Office Sports.
