Most rewards programs pay you in more betting. Fanatics pays you in a jersey. Lose on Sunday and the FanCash still lands, and it spends at Fanatics.com like a gift card. I think it is the smartest rewards idea anybody in this business has had.

The short version

If you buy team gear anyway, this one is easy. Every bet earns FanCash whether it wins or loses, and you can push it back into the app as bonus bets or spend it at Fanatics.com on something you keep. Add a bet type nobody else runs and prop protection that refunds in cash, and there is not much to argue with. The rewards are the reason to open this account. Everything else is fine, which is all it needs to be.

What we like

• FanCash spends like a gift card. Every bet earns it, win or lose. Convert it to bonus bets from as little as $0.10, or take it to Fanatics.com and any official team shop and spend it the way you would spend cash on a jersey or a signed ball. That is the part that matters. The money leaves the sportsbook. No other rewards program here spends at a shop you would use anyway, and nothing expires while the account stays active.
• Fair Play saves the prop your guy got hurt on. You take a receiver over 60 yards, he limps off in the second quarter of an NFL game and gets ruled out. Fanatics voids it. Cash back, not bonus credit. Inside a parlay the leg drops out and the rest of your ticket stays alive. Nothing to opt into and no button to press, which is more than most refund offers can say.
• Squad Bets are a genuinely new bet type. Pick a market, set a target, then pick 3 to 6 players whose combined output has to clear it. A normal parlay dies the second one guy has a quiet night. A Squad Bet does not, because somebody else covers the gap. I have more fun with these than anything else on any app we cover.

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Getting the most out of FanCash

This is the part worth understanding properly, because it is the whole reason to have the account.

The rate keys off the odds you take, not the type of bet. Short prices at -110 or better earn at the bottom of the scale. The longer the number, the higher the percentage, and the headline double-digit rate belongs to the real longshots. So the rewards curve leans hard toward the plus-money end of the board. If you already bet longshots, the rate is working for you before the game even starts.

Then decide where it goes. Bonus bets put it back on the board. Merchandise takes it off the table and turns it into something that is still yours when the game goes wrong. I would take the merchandise every time.

The app

Everything lives in one place. Sportsbook and casino where it is licensed, plus a prediction-market section that is newer than the rest of it. The Apple listing sits at 4.8 out of 5 across roughly a quarter of a million ratings, right at the top of the category alongside the biggest books in the country.

What you will actually use: Cash Out on live tickets and regular Profit Boosts. Copy Bet lets somebody share a slip you can take with one tap. And you can stream NFL games inside the app through Genius Sports’ BetVision and bet straight off the video player, which is the same product FanDuel and Caesars run.

Worth knowing before you sign up

• The rate on ordinary bets is modest. Most tickets sit at the short end of the odds scale, which is the low end of the earning scale. It is a real rebate and it adds up across a season. But do not let the headline percentage set your expectations for a normal Sunday.
• Casino is not everywhere yet. Fanatics Casino is live in four states so far. If you want slots and table games in the same app, check your state before you sign up. The sportsbook itself covers almost the whole legal map.
• The prices are middle of the pack. On the August 26 board we compared 575 games across ten leagues. Fanatics had the best or tied-best number on 177 of 406 prices. FanDuel and DraftKings edged it, BetMGM trailed it, and not one of those gaps is wide enough to call a real difference. You are not here for the numbers. You are here for what the numbers turn into.

Where you can bet it

Fanatics is live in 23 states plus Washington D.C., which covers roughly 95% of the legal online sports betting market in the country. If you can bet legally where you live, odds are it is already there.

Bottom line

If you buy team gear anyway, this is the easiest account on the list to justify. The rewards leave the app and land in your closet. Open it for the FanCash and stay for the Squad Bets.

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New customers, 21+. Available where legal. See Fanatics for current offer terms. Read our responsible gambling resources.