NFL Renews Betting Deals With DraftKings and FanDuel, Adds Fanatics

The NFL has announced new official partnerships with three major sports betting companies ahead of the 2026 season, confirming its continued embrace of the legal gambling industry.

According to the announcement, the league has renewed its existing agreements with DraftKings and FanDuel, two of the largest sportsbook operators in the United States, both of which have held NFL partnerships for several years.

In a new addition to its roster of gambling partners, the NFL has also signed a deal with Fanatics, a company traditionally known for sports merchandise that has expanded into online sports betting in recent years. The move gives Fanatics access to the kind of official league branding and advertising opportunities long enjoyed by its rivals.

With these agreements in place, the NFL will enter the 2026 season with three official sportsbook partners, reflecting how deeply intertwined professional sports leagues and betting companies have become since the legalisation of sports gambling spread across many US states.

Notably, the league has confirmed that it will not enter into any deals with prediction market companies for the coming season. Prediction markets, which allow users to trade on the likelihood of future events, have emerged as a competitor to traditional sportsbooks but operate under different regulatory frameworks that remain a subject of legal debate in the US.

By excluding prediction markets from its official partnership structure for now, the NFL appears to be taking a cautious approach toward a segment of the betting industry whose legal status has not been fully settled. Analysts have noted that prediction markets occupy a grey area between financial trading and gambling, drawing scrutiny from regulators in multiple states.

The NFL's decision underscores the growing financial significance of betting partnerships to major sports leagues, which generate substantial revenue from advertising rights, official data-sharing agreements, and sponsorship deals with licensed operators. As the sports betting market continues to mature, leagues like the NFL are likely to face ongoing questions about how far these commercial relationships should extend, particularly as new betting formats, such as prediction markets, continue to challenge the traditional industry structure.