Fanatics Betting and Gaming, the online and retail sports betting subsidiary of Fanatics Holdings Incorporated, a global digital sports platform, opened a retail sportsbook location in partnership with the Cleveland Guardians today at Progressive Field.

“We’re very excited to partner with Fanatics Betting and Gaming to bring a retail sportsbook location, its first in Major League Baseball, outside Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland,” the Vice-President of Corporate and Premium Partnerships for the Cleveland Guardians, Ted Baugh, said. “This will provide our fans a very convenient in-person option to place bets.”

Paul Shuey, former Cleveland Guardian pitcher, placed the ceremonial first bet at the brand-new Fanatics Sportsbook at Progressive Field. Shuey, a University of North Carolina graduate and Cleveland’s first round pick in 1992 (2nd overall), placed a $20 moneyline bet (-135) on the University of North Carolina (football) to win its home opener against University of South Carolina on Sept 2, 2023.

“This is Fanatics Betting and Gaming’s first retail sportsbook at a Major League Ballpark,” the Chief Business Officer for Fanatics Betting and Gaming, Ari Borod, said. “We designed this location to complement our online sports betting app and usher in a brand-new sports betting experience with the most rewarding online sportsbook in Ohio, allowing customers to earn up to 5% back in FanCash on every bet.”

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The Fanatics Sportsbook app is available for download on iOS and Android for sports fans living and visiting the state of Ohio. The Fanatics Sportsbook makes being a fan easy with fast sign-up, easy betting, transparent withdrawals, an industry-leading search functionality and a curated Discover page with the sports and bets that matter most to a customer.

The Fanatics Sportsbook at Progressive Field is located outside the Right Field District Gate at the corner of Larry Doby Way and East 9th Street. The newly-designed sportsbook is nearly 600 square feet and features two betting windows, four self-service betting kiosks and seven television monitors. The Fanatics Sportsbook at Progressive Field will offer legal betting markets for all major sports including professional and college football, basketball, hockey and baseball alongside tennis, soccer, golf, MMA and boxing. The development and trading of sports betting markets will be done in-house at Fanatics Betting and Gaming and supported by a number of world-class trading suppliers. Fans seeking to place an in-person bet will not require a Guardians game ticket to access the sportsbook.

Fanatics Betting and Gaming and the Cleveland Guardians believe that responsible gaming is a core tenet and a part of each company’s DNA. On-site staff at the Fanatics Sportsbook at Progressive Field have received responsible wagering training and can offer support services to customers when needed.

The Fanatics Sportsbook at Progressive Field will be open weekdays from 2pm to 8pm and weekends from 11am to 9pm. On game days, the Fanatics Sportsbook at Progressive Field will be open two hours prior to first pitch and stay open through the conclusion of the game.

Fanatics Betting and Gaming, the online and retail sports betting subsidiary of Fanatics Holdings, Inc., a global digital sports platform, will redefine the sports betting customer experience with the launch of the Fanatics Sportsbook online today in Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio and Tennessee. After six months of beta testing, the Fanatics Sportsbook app is now available for download on iOS and Android for sports fans living and visiting the states of Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio and Tennessee.

The Fanatics Sportsbook makes being a fan easy with fast signup, easy betting, transparent withdrawals, an industry-leading search functionality and a curated Discover page with the sports and bets that matter most to a customer. Sports fans can find live scores, plus lines and odds for their favorite teams and athletes. Fanatics Sportsbook features everything from moneyline bets, to spread bets, over-unders, player props, live in-game betting markets, and the always popular Same Game Parlays (SGPs).

“After 6 months of beta testing, we are excited to officially launch the Fanatics Sportsbook product to the public,” said Scot McClintic, Chief Product Officer, Fanatics Betting and Gaming. “We are laser focused on solving pain points facing customers by offering a faster, easier, and a more rewarding sports betting experience. The strategic patience to build a product for the long-term has given us an opportunity to redefine a customer’s expectation of what a sportsbook should be. With the Fanatics Sportsbook product foundation built and wholly owned, customers should expect unparalleled speed of feature improvement, delivery, and innovation.”

Fanatics Betting and Gaming is poised to disrupt the sports betting industry by offering the following exciting new features:

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• Building a better sportsbook: The Fanatics Sportsbook app was built natively on iOS and Android. The design, speed and quality of the navigation experience rivals the sports betting apps in the market today that were not built specifically for iOS and Android. Building natively allows the Fanatics Sportsbook to perform over time at a level consistent with other technology-first companies.
• The most rewarding sportsbook: It’s all thanks to FanCash – The Currency of Sport. Earning FanCash is the first step to participation in the loyalty program for the Fanatics digital platform. Our vision is a program that rewards fans with access to experiences that money can’t buy. FanCash, the backbone of the Fanatics loyalty program, can be converted dollar-for-dollar into Bonus Bets and can also be used to purchase your favorite team merchandise at Fanatics.com.
  • Earn 5% FanCash on Same Game Parlay (SGP) bets.
  • Earn 3% FanCash on parlay bets.
  • Earn 1% FanCash on straight bets.
• From curated to a more personalized experience: Customers know what they want to bet on, and a sportsbook should know it too. Introducing the Fanatics Sportsbook Discover page with top picks for you including marquee games, trending bets, promos and rewards you want most. Customers will not have to scroll for long periods of time to place a bet on their favorite team or sport. In the near future, the Discover page will be personalized to the customer’s favorite teams, sports and markets.
• Transparent: If you can track your pizza, you should be able to track your money. Our Withdrawal Tracker shows you where your money is in the withdrawal process so you can relax and enjoy the game. And the pizza.
• Search: The Fanatics Sportsbook will offer industry-leading search functionality to help customers find their bets faster. Search will include a search bar, recent searches, autocomplete, synonym/alias and deep linking to leagues, events and markets.
• A connected digital sports ecosystem: Fanatics Betting and Gaming is the first company to enter the sports betting market with the backing of a parent company that has been focused on the sports fan for years. Fanatics is building a one-of-a-kind sports ecosystem where sports fans can go to one location and buy team merchandise, find collectibles and place a wager on their favorite teams.

With Fanatics Betting and Gaming’s recent acquisition of the U.S. businesses of PointsBet and its proprietary Banach Technology, the Fanatics Sportsbook will integrate the best parts of the PointsBet tech platform to supercharge its sports betting engine. The Fanatics Sportsbook will also leverage PointsBet’s quantitative driven trading models from Banach Technology in its new state-of-the-art risk and trading platform. The Fanatics Sportsbook will offer legal sports betting markets on professional and college football, basketball, hockey and baseball, as well as golf, tennis, motorsports, boxing, MMA and much more. The development and trading of sports betting markets will be done in house at Fanatics Betting and Gaming.

The Fanatics Sportsbook is making a profound commitment to the customer with a world class Help Center, chat experience and knowledgeable agents with 24/7 coverage. Customers will also have access to Responsible Gaming tools along with some new innovations that will be rolled out this fall so customers can analyze and manage their time, money and play patterns.