NFL Signs Multi-Year Sports Betting Partnerships With DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics for 2026 Season
On 27 August 2026, ahead of the new season, the NFL confirmed multi-year sports betting partnerships with three operators: DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics Betting and Gaming. DraftKings and FanDuel have both been in the category since 2021, while Fanatics is widening a relationship that already ran through collectibles and official league merchandise.
On the surface it reads as a marketing story. Look at the terms, though, and it’s something more deliberate. Alongside the marketing and data rights, all three operators signed up to a shared set of integrity obligations, and for operators watching the category, that is the detail that matters most.
What the NFL sports betting partnerships include
Three operators. One league. All moved onto formal multi-year footing at the same moment, right before kickoff. That timing isn’t incidental. The NFL is the most valuable audience in US sport, and how it organises its betting category sets a reference point the rest of the market reads carefully.
What each partner now holds is substantial. The right to use NFL marks across online and retail sports betting. A presence at tentpole events including the Super Bowl and NFL Draft. Hospitality and VIP access. Integrations across NFL-owned digital properties. And access to real-time, official play-by-play statistics, Next Gen Stats and BetVision, all delivered through Genius Sports, the league’s exclusive data distribution partner.
That data line is the one operators should sit with. Official, real-time, league-grade data is the raw material for live betting products. Controlling who gets it, and on what terms, is one of the sharpest levers a league holds.
What the DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics deals cover
The partnerships extend beyond the sportsbook. DraftKings will continue as the Official Daily Fantasy Sports Partner of the NFL, a relationship that began in 2019 and carries exclusive rights to league IP and marks. Fanatics, meanwhile, becomes an Official Online Casino Marketing Partner, extending its relationship with the league beyond betting into casino.
What each partner said about the NFL deal
The message was consistent across all four voices in the announcement, and integrity came up in every one of them.
Renie Anderson, the NFL’s executive vice president and chief revenue officer, said the three partners share the league’s vision for innovation and fan engagement, and above all its commitment to protecting the integrity of the game.
Stephanie Sherman, chief marketing officer at DraftKings, said working with the NFL lets the brand sit alongside the biggest games of the season, from Kickoff through the Super Bowl, and gives fans more ways to engage with the action as it happens.
Christian Genetski, president at FanDuel, said that over the past five years the NFL has been an important partner in helping build a legal and regulated sports betting industry that keeps fans and the integrity of the game at the centre.
Matt King, chief executive officer of Fanatics Betting and Gaming, said the deal expands the partnership to include Fanatics Sportsbook and Fanatics Casino, bringing bet, play and engagement with the NFL together in one place.
What the integrity terms mean for operators
Here’s the part operators care about. Every one of these partnerships came with strings, and the strings are the interesting part.
All three signed up to the league’s core game integrity policies. They agreed to collaborate on intelligence sharing, advocacy and responsible gambling. And they committed to work together to prohibit wagers the NFL finds objectionable, including bets tied to officiating and injuries, along with markets that can be known in advance or easily manipulated by a single person.
The league sits this on a broader integrity structure it already runs: monitoring for suspicious activity in coordination with law enforcement and regulators, Genius Sports tracking betting patterns for signs of manipulation, and an assigned Integrity Representative at each club, typically a retired FBI agent or senior law enforcement officer. All players, coaches, officials and staff also complete annual training on the league’s Gambling Policy and sign it each year. There’s a responsible gambling record behind it too. The NFL has provided the two largest grants in the National Council on Problem Gambling’s history, $6.2M in 2021 and $6.4M in 2024, and will again run its “Stick to Your Game Plan, Always Bet Responsibly” campaign this season. Access to the NFL, in other words, now arrives bundled with obligation. The data pipeline and the compliance pipeline are the same deal.
The detail worth naming
No financial terms were disclosed. Deal length, rights fees, revenue share, none of it is public, so none of it should be assumed. “Multi-year” is as specific as the league went, and reading a valuation into this announcement would be guesswork. What can be said is structural, not commercial: the shape of the relationship is clear even if the price tag isn’t.
What comes next for regulated betting partnerships
The direction of travel is hard to miss. Expect the access-plus-accountability model to become the default for major league betting deals rather than the exception. As official, real-time data becomes the deciding input for live products, leagues gain leverage to attach integrity and responsible gambling conditions to the operators who want it, and they’ll use it.
For operators, the practical takeaway is a budgeting and compliance one. A tier-one league partnership is no longer just a marketing spend to model. It’s an ongoing governance commitment to resource, monitor and honour. The logo is the easy part. The obligations are the recurring cost.
Source: National Football League (NFL)
