Three weeks after Fanatics Betting & Gaming (FBG) was approved to launch online gambling in Ontario’s regulated iGaming market, Fanatics Casino officially hit the market on Tuesday, Sept. 1.
Canadian Gaming Business reported on Aug. 11 that FBG received licenses that day from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) for its casino platform. Fanatics Casino soft-launched without fanfare on Tuesday and began taking wagers as the 50th active operator in the province, including all licensed commercial brands and the government-owned Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG).
The operator’s President of Gaming Conor Grant told Canadian Gaming Business in an interview on Tuesday that it will follow up in 2027 by adding sports betting in Ontario and by entering Alberta’s iGaming market.
Why is Fanatics starting with only casino in Ontario?
Although Fanatics has its roots in sports apparel and merchandise and boasts several Canadian sports partners on that side of its business, sports betting is not included in the company’s Ontario iGaming rollout. Grant told Canadian Gaming Business on Tuesday that is partly a reflection of Ontario’s market, but confirmed that the plan is to introduce Fanatics Sportsbook to the province in 2027.
“It’s going to take us a little bit of time to get up to speed where we want to be, but this has been a target market for us for a while,” Grant said in an interview via Zoom. “We’re two-and-a-half years into our journey in the U.S. and we’ve been the fastest-growing there, so Ontario was a natural extension for us. This is our first foray into an international market. We’re treating it as an international market and not a 51st state.
“There were a couple of factors in the decision to lead with casino. The market is predominantly casino, it’s very heavily skewed in that region, and we also knew we could get casino live much quicker. The other big element is that, like other U.S. operators, we’ve been getting into the production market space and working out what is going on there. But we will absolutely follow [in Ontario] in 2027 with our sportsbook proposition.”
To Grant’s point, Fanatics Casino enters an Ontario market where almost 90% of all online gambling handle and 80% of gross gaming revenue comes through online casino. In July 2026, Ontarians wagered $8.78bn on iCasino alone on iGaming Ontario platforms, an all-time monthly record.
Fanatics Betting & Gaming plans to launch in Alberta in 2027
Fanatics Casino already operates in four U.S. states: Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Fanatics Sportsbook is live in 24 U.S. jurisdictions, while the newer Fanatics Markets venture operates in a total of 23 U.S. states in which it does not offer state-regulated sports betting or casino gaming.
Ontario is now the first international market for the Fanatics Betting & Gaming brand. A spokesperson echoed Grant’s comments by telling Canadian Gaming Business that “sports betting is not in our immediate plans and will come second.”
Adding sports betting in that province isn’t the only further Canadian expansion on the agenda for 2027.
Although Alberta opened its own regulated iGaming market on July 13, Fanatics Betting & Gaming is not listed as a registrant with Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis (AGLC) as of the time of writing. However, Grant told Canadian Gaming Business that Alberta is firmly in the plan.
“Alberta is on the roadmap,” he added. “It’ll be 2027. We will land in Alberta; it’s just going to take us a little bit of time.
“Success in Ontario will be creating and landing a really strong proposition in Ontario that resonates with the players first. We feel our broader proposition of the Fanatics ecosystem will resonate in the Canadian market. It’s about getting a product that’s really competitive, and as we head into the new year, that’s when you’ll see us trying to land a proposition that will resonate with Canadian casino players.
“If we do that, and then we drive awareness, success will follow.”
Casino focus, sports roots
Fanatics Casino platform has launched with a curated game portfolio of hundreds of games across live dealer, slots, and table games from leading suppliers including Evolution, IGT, and Playtech.
While FBG has only taken its casino app live in Ontario at first, Grant believes the operator will still reap the benefits of Fanatics’ sports roots.
The parent company has a stacked roster of Canada-facing sports league and team partners, including status as the official team jersey provider for the NHL and its various Canadian teams. Other apparel and merch partners include the likes of Major League Baseball and the Toronto Blue Jays, the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, as well as Canada Basketball, Canada Soccer, and Hockey Canada.
“Ontario is a super competitive market, but it’s a very appealing market, and we think we’ve got something a little bit different in our proposition,” Grant added. “Not only our brand, but our overall ecosystem. Fanatics has heritage in the market already through its sponsorship of the NHL and the Blue Jays. Our brand has a presence there from a merchandising perspective.
“So, this was a logical step for us, and we think our proposition will resonate with the Canadian players.”
Even within its casino platform, Fanatics has some sports ties. It holds an exclusive casino gaming deal with the WWE and launched its first proprietary game under the wrestling brand in March. Grant said that Fanatics will continue to explore proprietary content and intellectual property rights (IP) deals in Ontario and beyond.
Fanatics will also begin ramping up its casino marketing in Canada over the coming months. In the U.S., the company works with celebrities including Patrick Schwarzenegger and Taraji P. Henson to advertise its casino product. Grant suggested that as Fanatics Casino gets a foothold in the Ontario market, “who we use and how we do that will be very targeted to who resonates in the Canadian market.”
Fanatics confident of taking ‘significant’ market share
Fanatics had held back from entering the Canadian online gambling market until now, despite its rapid growth in the U.S. since acquiring PointsBet USA in 2023. Now, it will compete with dozens of others, including major American-market brands such as:
- Bally Bet
- bet365
- BetMGM
- BetRivers
- Caesars
- DraftKings
- FanDuel
- Hard Rock Bet
Unlike those nine operators, Fanatics has opted to limit itself to just online casino in Ontario for now.
Fanatics Casino is also one of several new high-profile arrivals in the Ontario market in recent weeks. Sports streaming company DAZN launched its DAZN Bet sportsbook and casino in the province on June 30 and Hard Rock Bet went live with both verticals on July 22.
Asked what success in Ontario would look like, Grant said that the operator’s leaders are confident of carving out a slice of the pie.
“Fundamentally, we think we’ve built a proposition that is resonating with consumers. We see that in how we acquire and retain them. We have been the fastest-growing brand in the U.S. in the last 12 to 18 months, so we felt now is the right time to bring that to a different market. Canada felt like a logical extension.
“It is competitive, but so are some of the U.S. states we operate in. Casino is very competitive and we’ve gone in and taken significant share in those states. We think we can do the same in the Canadian market.
“We don’t come to play eighth or ninth in the market. We want to be a top operator. It’s going to take time, and we respect a lot of the incumbents in the market, but we’ve shown in Michigan and Pennsylvania that we can aggressively win and take market share in very short periods of time.”
