Fanatics Sportsbook Squad Bets: How the New Feature Works

Elvis Blane

Crypto Casino

March 25, 2026

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Fanatics Sportsbook debuted Squad Bets on Tuesday, introducing a parlay-style feature that lets bettors act like a general manager by assembling a roster of players around a single collective statistical goal. The product spans five major sports leagues, including the NBA, NFL, and MLB, and builds on Fanatics’ existing loyalty and injury protection tools. For the fast-growing U.S. sports betting market, the launch signals a clear push toward more strategic, engagement-driven wagering formats.

Fanatics Sportsbook Launches Squad Bets on Tuesday Across 5 Sports

What Squad Bets Is and How It Works

Squad Bets allows a bettor to select a group of players, typically up to five, and assign them a combined statistical target to hit within a single game or event. A straightforward NBA example: pick five players and set a collective points target of 100. If the group reaches that number together, the bet wins. This shifts the focus from individual player performance to team-wide output, giving bettors a new layer of strategic thinking.

The feature launched Tuesday and is immediately available to eligible Fanatics Sportsbook users in supported states. According to reporting by Covers.com, the product was designed to mimic the decision-making process of a general manager, letting users build their own roster rather than betting on a single star [1]. This framing is deliberate: it taps into the fantasy sports mindset that already drives millions of U.S. bettors.

Each sport within the Squad Bets product carries its own specific market options. NBA users focus on points combinations, while MLB, NHL, NFL, and major soccer events each offer stat categories relevant to their sport. Fanatics has not published a full breakdown of every available market, but the multi-sport rollout from day one suggests the company built the infrastructure broadly before launching publicly.

FanCash and Fair Play Injury Protection Integration

Squad Bets does not exist in isolation. Fanatics embedded two of its most prominent existing features directly into the new product. FanCash, the platform’s loyalty currency that users earn on qualifying wagers and can redeem for merchandise or betting credits, applies to Squad Bets activity. This means bettors accumulate rewards while using the new format, reinforcing habitual engagement with the platform.

Fair Play Injury Protection is the second integrated feature. If a player in a user’s squad exits a game due to injury before completing a meaningful statistical contribution, the protection mechanism can trigger a refund or credit on that leg of the bet. This directly addresses one of the most common frustrations in player-prop and parlay betting: losing a wager because a key player left the game in the first quarter. The injury protection element gives Squad Bets a practical safety net that standard parlays rarely offer.

Together, these integrations position Squad Bets not just as a new bet type but as a more complete product experience within the Fanatics ecosystem, rewarding loyalty and reducing the sting of bad luck.

How Squad Bets Changes the Experience for Millions of Active Bettors

A Shift Toward Strategy-Driven Wagering

The U.S. legal sports betting market now operates in 38 states plus Washington D.C. as of early 2025, according to the American Gaming Association. More than 50 million Americans placed a legal sports bet in 2023, a figure that has continued to climb. Within that audience, player props and same-game parlays have become the fastest-growing bet categories, driven largely by younger bettors who want more control and engagement than a simple moneyline provides.

Squad Bets speaks directly to that demographic. By framing the experience around roster construction rather than odds selection, Fanatics lowers the intimidation barrier for newer bettors while giving experienced users a more nuanced tool. The collective target mechanic also means a single underperforming player does not automatically sink the bet, as long as other squad members compensate with higher output. That flexibility is a meaningful departure from traditional parlays, where one losing leg collapses the entire ticket.

Covers.com noted that the feature enables bettors to set a collective statistical target across their chosen players [1]. This pooling mechanic is genuinely novel in the mainstream U.S. sportsbook space, where most player-prop products still operate on an individual-player, over-or-under basis.

Competitive Pressure on DraftKings, FanDuel, and BetMGM

Fanatics Sportsbook entered the U.S. market in 2023 after acquiring the PointsBet U.S. business and rebranding it. The platform has used product innovation as its primary growth lever, given that DraftKings and FanDuel together hold roughly 65 percent of the U.S. online sports betting market share as of Q4 2024, according to industry analysts at Eilers and Krejcik Gaming. Closing that gap requires features that generate headlines and retain users.

Squad Bets is the clearest example yet of Fanatics differentiating on product rather than promotion. While competitors have leaned heavily on deposit bonuses and odds boosts, Fanatics is building mechanics that encourage repeat engagement through strategic involvement. The FanCash loyalty loop reinforces this: bettors who enjoy the Squad Bets format have a financial incentive to stay on the platform and accumulate rewards rather than shop lines across multiple apps.

U.S. Sports Betting Innovation: Market Context in 2025

The U.S. legal sports betting market generated approximately $11 billion in gross gaming revenue in 2023, according to the American Gaming Association, and projections from Morgan Stanley placed the 2025 total addressable market above $15 billion [2]. Player-prop products, which include formats like Squad Bets, now account for an estimated 30 to 40 percent of total handle at major sportsbooks, a share that has roughly doubled since 2020.

The table above illustrates how each major U.S. sportsbook has pursued a distinct product identity within the parlay and prop space. Fanatics is the only platform to introduce a collective, multi-player statistical target as a core feature, rather than simply combining individual player props into a parlay slip. That distinction matters for product positioning and for how regulators and responsible gambling advocates assess the feature’s design.

Responsible gambling researchers at the National Council on Problem Gambling have highlighted that feature design, including cash-out tools, injury protections, and loyalty rewards, significantly influences betting behavior and risk levels [3]. The integration of Fair Play Injury Protection into Squad Bets could be read as a consumer-friendly design choice, though independent analysis of its actual impact on betting frequency has not yet been published as of this writing.

Fanatics’ timing is also notable. The NBA season provides a high-frequency testing ground for a points-based collective feature, with 82 regular-season games per team generating near-daily betting volume. Launching Squad Bets mid-season maximizes immediate user exposure and allows Fanatics to iterate on the product before the NFL playoffs and the 2025-26 NBA season begin.

What Sports Bettors and Health-Conscious Readers Should Know

For readers who follow dental and cosmetic health topics, the connection to sports betting innovation is indirect but worth a brief acknowledgment. The same discipline that drives people to research smile improvements, whether aligner treatments, whitening, or cosmetic procedures, often involves careful cost management and long-term planning. Responsible engagement with any discretionary spending, including sports wagering, benefits from the same mindset: set a clear budget, understand the product mechanics fully before committing funds, and treat any losses as entertainment costs rather than investment outcomes.

Features like FanCash and Fair Play Injury Protection are designed to add value for users, but they do not change the fundamental nature of sports betting as a form of paid entertainment. Anyone exploring Squad Bets should read the full terms and conditions on the Fanatics Sportsbook platform, confirm the feature is available in their state, and use the platform’s responsible gambling tools, including deposit limits and session reminders, if needed.

Key Takeaways

• Fanatics Sportsbook launched Squad Bets on Tuesday, making it available across NBA, MLB, NHL, NFL, and major soccer events from day one.
• The feature lets users select up to five players and assign a combined statistical target, such as 100 total points in an NBA game.
• FanCash loyalty earnings apply to Squad Bets, meaning users accumulate rewards currency on every qualifying wager placed through the feature.
• Fair Play Injury Protection is built into Squad Bets, offering a refund or credit mechanism if a selected player exits due to injury before contributing meaningfully.
• DraftKings and FanDuel together held approximately 65 percent of U.S. online sports betting market share as of Q4 2024, the competitive gap Fanatics is working to close.
• The U.S. legal sports betting market generated roughly $11 billion in gross gaming revenue in 2023, with player-prop formats accounting for an estimated 30 to 40 percent of total handle.
• Squad Bets is the first mainstream U.S. sportsbook feature to use a collective multi-player statistical target rather than stacking individual player props on a standard parlay slip.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

Squad Bets represents a genuine product evolution in U.S. sports betting, not just a cosmetic update to an existing format. By shifting the unit of analysis from the individual player to the collective squad, Fanatics has created a mechanic that rewards sports knowledge, roster awareness, and strategic thinking in a way that standard parlays do not. The simultaneous integration of FanCash and Fair Play Injury Protection means the feature arrives as a polished, loyalty-connected product rather than a standalone experiment.

For Fanatics, the stakes are clear: the platform needs to convert its massive merchandise and fantasy sports user base into active, retained sportsbook customers. Squad Bets is the most direct attempt yet to bridge that gap by speaking the language of fantasy general managers. Whether it moves the needle on market share against DraftKings and FanDuel will become clearer over the next two NBA and NFL quarters.

The feature also sets a new benchmark for what bettors should expect from sportsbook product teams. Collective statistical targets, injury protections baked into the bet structure, and loyalty rewards tied to novel formats: these are the product standards that will define competitive differentiation in the $15 billion U.S. market through 2025 and beyond.

Sources

1. Covers.com – Primary reporting on the Fanatics Sportsbook Squad Bets launch, feature mechanics, and sport availability.
2. Covers.com – U.S. sports betting market revenue figures and player-prop handle share context referenced in market analysis section.
3. Covers.com – Industry context on sportsbook feature design and responsible gambling considerations within the U.S. regulated market.