Fanatics CEO confirms 2027 ad spend budget of up to $1bn

As part of an interview with Bloomberg, Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin has expressed his intentions to grow the operator into the largest gambling business in the US in the coming years.  

A key element of this ambition is Rubin’s newly outlined plan to double advertising spend to around $1bn through 2027, up from $350m this year. Indeed, this plan comes following a 40% revenue surge over the past year which, according to Rubin, will see the operator’s revenue rise to around $14bn for 2026 overall.  

Of course, Fanatics operates across a multitude of markets, and the CEO has outlined that around $2bn of that overall revenue figure has come from the sports betting industry.

Having entered the sector in 2023, the company has already observed astronomical change, with Rubin outlining that growth in the ‘traditional’ sports betting market has slowed: “Revenue on a per-state basis has hit a wall in fully regulated states like Pennsylvania, New Jersey or New York,” he told Bloomberg, “the second thing is new states are regulating at a slower pace than you would have thought and the third thing is that prediction markets come out of nowhere.” 

Having entered the prediction market sector, itself, via Fanatics Markets, Rubin has stated that he is now not only intending to bolster advertising spend to capture market share from FanDuel and DraftKings, but also to compete with the likes of Kalshi and Polymarket. He expressed Fanatics’ position as a private entity as an advantage over the likes of FanDuel and DraftKings, with financial backing appearing evident and Rubin’s 31% super majority ownership providing additional maneuverability.  

Rubin further highlighted that, despite having raised $4bn in recent investments from Clearlake Capital, SoftBank and Silver Lake, his ownership share remains paramount: “No one's going to push me to do anything we don't want. I own 31% of the business. I have a super majority. We're not doing anything that's not in the business's best interest. I have no interest in going public in the near- and mid-term.”