FanDuel Review

FanDuel Summary

FanDuel is comfortably entrenched as the most popular legal sports betting site in the United States, ahead of fellow industry giants Caesars, BetMGM and DraftKings – but is the app worthy of such incredible fanfare? 

Here’s a detailed look at FanDuel’s sports betting offerings – and why first-time wagerers might get more out of the FD experience than experienced bettors or those who favor high limits.

FanDuel Quick Facts

FanDuel Locations

FanDuel was one of the first sportsbooks to launch in the regulated iGaming market in Ontario in April 2022. As an industry leader, you can expect FanDuel to be among the first sportsbooks launched as new provinces and territories welcome legal sports betting.

Sports Leagues to Bet On

Canadian sports bettors are well taken care of here, with FanDuel offering one of the most comprehensive sets of markets across all six major professional North American sports. Here’s a breakdown of those big six leagues, and how FD serves them:

NFL Betting

The National Football League is king of the sports betting castle in North America, and FanDuel gives it a proper level of respect with thousands of available betting markets each week during the regular season. FanDuel is one of the most user-friendly NFL betting sites and Super Bowl betting sites when it comes to the majority of main NFL betting options, with vig that rates as quite reasonable, and offers a wealth of popular Same Game Parlay opportunities throughout the season. 

College Football

FanDuel’s NCAA football offering doesn’t quite rival that of the NFL, but there are still plenty of markets for college gridiron fanatics to favor here. FanDuel’s betting site offers moneylines, spreads and totals for the majority of Division I games each week, and provides a decent number of team and player props to bettors in states where these bets are permitted.

NBA Betting

The hardcourt becomes the focal point of most sports bettors once football season ends, and FanDuel is a terrific landing spot for those customers. Offering a wide range of player and team props – hundreds per game for most matchups – while also providing moneyline, spread and totals plays puts FanDuel front and center in the NBA sports betting sphere.

In November 2021, the NBA announced multi-year expanded partnerships making DraftKings and FanDuel Group co-official sports betting partners of the NBA. Expanding on its existing partnership dating back to 2014, FanDuel will become the exclusive presenting partner of the weekly NBABet Show each Monday night on NBA TV. As part of the new deal, fans can choose to see FanDuel odds displayed on the Games page of NBA.com.

College Basketball

As you might expect, FanDuel puts on a full-court press come March Madness time, with extensive betting markets for every game in the NCAA men’s tournament. But college hoops bettors can get their fix year-round, between offseason NCAA basketball futures and a healthy dose of regular season and conference tournament lines, spreads and totals plays.

NHL Betting

Are you a hockey bettor? FanDuel has you covered. The FD betting app rolls out a steady diet of moneyline, puckline and totals options from first-night puck drop to the final game of the Stanley Cup, with a whole lot of fun props markets thrown in, as well. FanDuel is also ahead of the competition when it comes to the variety and volume of its NHL futures offerings, which will undoubtedly please the majority of regular Canadian bettors.

MLB Betting

Kick those summer doldrums with a little Major League Baseball wagering! FanDuel has everything bettors need to make June and July profitable, with hundreds of major and secondary betting markets for nearly every game during the MLB season. And if you need an offseason baseball fix, you can check out FanDuel’s ample MLB futures offerings. 

Other Sports Leagues

In addition to the major sports listed above, you can also find Aussie Rules, boxing, cricket, cycling, darts, golf, handball, motorsports, Rugby League, Rugby Union, snooker, soccer, table tennis, and tennis. European sister sites like Paddy Power and Betfair cover a much longer list of secondary sports, so FanDuel could easily expand its coverage if it so desired.

Online Betting Experience

The sports betting experience is strong at FanDuel. It runs on the OpenSports engine, which Scientific Games sold to UFC owner Endeavor. The team at Flutter Entertainment has a lot of experience running leading sports betting sites such as Paddy Power, Betfair, and SkyBet, and it has done a great job on the FanDuel online betting site.

I love how extensive FanDuel’s sports offering is – particularly when it comes to events with global interest. For example, soccer fans can bet on games in the Cypriot second division, the Faroe Premier League, or the Kazakhstan league. There is also plenty of lower-league action from the United States and lots of other countries. This offering compares favorably with the industry’s other heavy hitters, including Caesars, BetMGM and DraftKings.

The basketball and hockey sections feature leagues from all over the world, and you can bet on the CFL alongside the NFL and college football. Each significant matchup has more than a hundred betting options, with a same game parlay builder included for each. If FanDuel doesn’t have it, there’s a good chance you won’t find it on many other sports betting apps.

Website Experience

Navigating the desktop version of FanDuel is as simple as it gets. In addition to having access to the most popular betting markets at the top of the screen, players can find any sport of their choosing within the left-hand-side menu. One small quibble: the betslip feature on the right-hand side takes up considerably more real estate than most other desktop betting sites, especially when making single wagers (it’s a lot of wasted space, people!)

The search feature is a handy function for those looking for specific team or player props, though this could be made better. A successful search will only take you to the game in which the team or player is featured, and not directly to the prop you’re likely trying to find.

That said, while the mobile experience is much stronger here (read below to find out more), props are easier to find on a desktop. You need to go into the game on mobile to find them. Both mobile and desktop would benefit greatly from a search option.

Mobile Betting and Betting App

FanDuel Sportsbook runs one of the better mobile apps in the country.

It has received well over 600,000 user reviews at the Apple app store, and its average rating is 4.8 out of 5. That makes it one of the best-rated mobile apps in any industry – not just for sports betting. SBR used the FanDuel mobile app on a variety of iPhones and Android devices, and it always performed well, with no issues around geolocation services or logging in.

Everything you need to do on this app, you’ll be able to do quickly. Transitioning between the FanDuel betting section and Casino offering is a virtually seamless operation, and you can build a multi-game parlay card in seconds. 

Live Betting

The live betting section at FanDuel is excellent. It covers more sporting events than DraftKings, and it is easy to browse.

The majority of live betting markets are continually updated throughout a game, and you can stream various sporting events live on the FanDuel app or website. You can also cash out a bet early if your team is winning, but you think it might lose the lead in the remainder of the game.

Casino, Poker, & Other Gaming Options

FanDuel was primarily known for daily fantasy sports, and you can still take part in DFS contests with one wallet integration between DFS and the betting site (even though Ontario residents can no longer use the DFS portion of your their accounts). FanDuel is part of the world’s largest online gambling company, so the team has a lot of experience running online casinos.

Online casino games continue to be one of the most common sources of customer complaints, so play at your own risk.

FanDuel History

Entrepreneurs Nigel Eccles, Lesley Eccles, Tom Griffiths, Rob Jones, and Chris Stafford created FanDuel back in 2009. Sports betting was illegal in every state apart from Nevada back then, but FanDuel found a niche in running daily fantasy sports contests. In May 2018, Ireland-based bookmaker Paddy Power Betfair announced its intent to acquire FanDuel. 

It prepared to enter the sports betting market after the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. After the merger was completed, Paddy Power opened its first FanDuel branded sportsbook at the Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey.

Paddy Power Betfair has since rebranded to Flutter Entertainment (NYSE: PDYPY), and it is the world’s largest online gambling company after buying The Stars Group. In December 2020, Flutter Entertainment increased its stake in FanDuel Group to 95% in a $4.1 billion cash-and-stock deal. It also owns FOX Bet, but FanDuel is its primary focus for the U.S. market. Boyd Gaming (NYSE: BYD) owns the other five percent.

FanDuel’s valuation isn’t publicly known, but when Flutter increased its holdings in FanDuel in December 2020, it listed FanDuel’s enterprise value at approximately $11 billion. In a fiscal 2020 results announcement, FanDuel CEO Matt King said that the company’s revenue “grew by 81 percent to $896 million.” Some analysts estimate FanDuel’s current market value to be in the ballpark of around $30.6 billion.

Later that month, FanDuel was named Sports Betting Operator of the Year in North America at the international Gaming Intelligence Awards 2021.

In March 2022, Flutter announced in their annual report that FanDuel became the first large-scale online brand to generate a positive in-year contribution from sports betting and gaming in the US. FanDuel contributed $14 million to the bottom line for Flutter despite them spending more than $1 billion in promotional marketing.

More recently, FanDuel has cemented itself as the #1 sports betting operator in the U.S., and its reputation has been growing abroad. In June 2024, Flutter was named in TIME Magazine's Top 100 Influential Companies worldwide list, and in November, the company closed at a record-high $267.00 per share on the New York Stock Exchange.

Customer Ratings & Reputation

FanDuel has a decent reputation amongst sports fans, which is why Flutter Entertainment bought it. Yet, despite their prominent stance in the industry, leading market share, and enormous corporate backing, they still find a need to limit bettors who are finding an edge.

For this reason, it’s hard to recommend this betting app to anyone who is looking to make larger wagers. Books like Circa Sports offer much higher level limits – and even bigger players like BetMGM, Caesars and PointsBet tend to limit less than FanDuel does.

I’ve seen too many examples to count of players being limited to wagers of less than a dollar – at which point, is there even a compelling reason to make the bet? This is a major strike against the industry, and FanDuel is one of the biggest offenders.

I’ll also ding FanDuel for offering few genuine odds boosts across its platforms. While its list of promotions and boosts is impressive, players rarely see the kind of improved odds incentive or bet boost limits to make those wagers worthwhile. This is another industry-wide concern, though a handful of betting apps are much better when it comes to boosted odds.

Customer Service

I’ve experienced a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to FanDuel’s customer service.

On one hand, resolutions have tended to take longer with FanDuel than with some smaller sports betting apps, likely due to the sheer number of inquiries/complaints the company deals with on a daily basis. Live chat waits can be on the long side, as can the wait for a response from FanDuel’s email option.

On the other hand, I found the response times on both the phone and live chat options to be well within the industry norms, with the customer service representatives across both methods helpful and friendly.

FanDuel Contact

• Phone: (646)-930-0860
• Email: [email protected]
• FAQ section
• Live Chat

FanDuel Legal Betting

FanDuel Sportsbook is regulated in Ontario by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario and iGaming Ontario.

Responsible Gambling

Here's a list of recommended responsible gambling resources available to FanDuel Ontario players:

• ResponsibleGambling.org: The Responsible Gambling Council (RGC) is a respected, independent non-profit organization. They have been a leader in preventing problem gambling in Canada and globally for more than 35 years. Operators in Ontario are required to register with RGC to operate in the province.
• ConnexOntario: ConnexOntario provides service information for people experiencing problems with gambling, drugs, alcohol, or mental health. Helpful, supportive system navigation specialists answer all calls, emails, or web chat requests 24/7. Call 1-866-531-2600 for more info.
• BeGambleAware.org: offers free, confidential help and support to anyone worried about gambling for themselves or others.
• Gambling Therapy: a global service provided by Gordon Moody offering free emotional support and advice to anyone affected by gambling.

Why Choose FanDuel?

FanDuel reigns supreme right now as the No. 1 betting site in North America. And it has largely earned that spot on the strength of superior brand recognition, an easy-to-use product, an overwhelming number of markets for the continent's most popular sports and representation in every state in which it is permitted to offer legal sports betting.

That said, there is still plenty of room for improvement. FanDuel Sportsbook has made a name out of Same Game Parlay offerings, but its SGP and odds boosts promos don’t offer quite as big a payoff as users like (or deserve). I would also like to see them find a way to resolve player issues more quickly, though they’ve proven largely effective at dispute resolution.

In all, new sports bettors – particularly those already familiar with the igaming giant’s daily fantasy sports product – will have a special appreciation for its ease of use and the immense number of market offerings. And while more seasoned bettors will find reasons to quibble (among them, FanDuel’s head-scratching decisions on bet limits), there are enough good things here to make FD a popular option for most subsets of bettors.

Exploring Other Sportsbooks

Interested in checking out what else is in the market? Start with our guides on the best sportsbooks, betting sites, and sports betting apps in the industry: