# Fanatics **Fanatics** is the sports-merchandise and trading-card giant founded and run by billionaire **Michael Rubin**. It added a sportsbook in 2023 and a prediction market in 2025, so one company now sells the jersey, the card and the bet. ## Three ways to bet - **Fanatics Betting & Gaming (2023).** Rubin announced the gambling arm in December 2022. Its first sportsbook opened in January 2023 at the Washington NFL team's stadium, the first legal sports-betting operation inside an NFL stadium. - **Fanatics Markets (December 2025).** Rolled out over three days: 10 states on December 3, 2025 (the figure some outlets, including The Block, reported), then 24 states by December 5 (CasinoBeats lists each day's states), with [[Crypto.com]] supplying the pricing and market engine. It offers contracts on sports, economics and politics. The list includes **California, Florida, Georgia and Texas**, where online sports betting is illegal, and leaves out the states actively suing prediction markets: Massachusetts, Nevada, Maryland, New Jersey and New York. - **The Crypto.com tie.** When Crypto.com and [[Trump Media and Technology Group]] scrapped "Truth Predict" in August 2026, Casino.org noted that Crypto.com's prediction business was unaffected because of its existing partnerships, Fanatics among them. **Leaving the casino lobby.** On December 11, 2025, eight days after Fanatics Markets launched, Fanatics Betting & Gaming left the [[American Gaming Association]], citing a "difference of opinion on prediction markets." ## Rubin's politics Rubin's best-documented recent political gift was local: **$1 million** in May 2025 to a super PAC backing Josh Kraft against Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (Wu won re-election). He co-founded the criminal-justice group REFORM Alliance in 2019 with Jay-Z, Meek Mill and Robert Kraft. As a company, Fanatics gave **$5.5 million** of the **$72 million** 2026-cycle gambling bloc Reuters counted, money aimed mostly at state legislatures. See [[Sports Betting]]. ## See also - [[Win for America]] · [[FanDuel]] · [[DraftKings]] · [[bet365]] · [[Crypto.com]] · [[Kalshi]] · [[American Gaming Association]] - [[Sports Betting]] · [[Prediction Markets]] · [[Prediction Markets and Gambling Sector]]