Matt King has led Fanatics Betting & Gaming since July 2021, guiding Michael Rubin’s merchandise empire into online sports betting. Before that, he spent seven years turning FanDuel from a fantasy sports app into one of the biggest sportsbooks in the country. Now he’s steering Fanatics through its next big bet: prediction markets.
Who Is Matt King?
Matt King is the CEO of Fanatics Betting & Gaming, the sports betting and iGaming arm of Fanatics Inc. He took the job in 2021, right after resigning as CEO of FanDuel. His background sits in finance and operations, not sports media.
He holds a mechanical engineering degree from North Carolina State University. He worked as a business analyst at McKinsey & Company, then spent 11 years at KKR Capstone, before entering the gambling industry in 2014.
Matt King’s Career at FanDuel and Fanatics
Matt King joined FanDuel as chief financial officer in October 2014, early in the company’s growth as a fantasy sports platform. He left in 2016 to become President of Regional Operations and Corporate Development at Cottingham & Butler, an insurance brokerage. He returned to FanDuel in November 2017, this time as CEO.
Under King’s leadership, FanDuel’s revenue grew from about $120 million to nearly $2 billion over roughly seven years, according to the company’s own account of his tenure. That stretch included the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling that struck down PASPA, the federal law blocking sports betting outside Nevada. FanDuel used the opening to become one of the two biggest sports betting operators in the country.
Matt King resigned from FanDuel in May 2021. Fanatics founder Michael Rubin then hired him to build the company’s betting and gaming division from the ground up.
| Year | Milestone |
| 2001 | Graduates North Carolina State University with a degree in mechanical engineering |
| ~2001-2003 | Works as a business analyst at McKinsey & Company (exact dates approximate) |
| 2003-2014 | Spends 11 years at KKR Capstone before entering the gambling industry |
| Oct 2014 | Joins FanDuel as Chief Financial Officer |
| 2016 | Becomes President of Regional Operations & Corporate Development at Cottingham & Butler |
| Nov 2017 | Returns to FanDuel as Chief Executive Officer |
| May 2021 | Resigns as CEO of FanDuel |
| Jul 2021 | Named CEO of Fanatics Betting & Gaming |
| Jan 2023 | Fanatics Sportsbook launches in Maryland and Ohio |
| May 2023 | PointsBet agrees to sell its US business to Fanatics |
| Apr 2024 | Fanatics completes the $225 million PointsBet acquisition, closing the final state (Illinois) |
| Dec 2025 | Fanatics Markets, the company’s prediction market app, goes live |
Why Fanatics Hired Matt King in 2021
Fanatics built its name on licensed sports merchandise, not gambling. When Rubin decided to enter betting, he wanted someone who had already built a sportsbook business, not just invested in one. King fit that brief. He had run FanDuel’s finances, then run the whole company, so he understood both state licensing and product design.
The bet showed up fast in scale. Fanatics Sportsbook launched its first two states, Maryland and Ohio, in January 2023. Later that year, Fanatics agreed to buy PointsBet’s US operations for $225 million, a deal that closed state by state and let it skip years of individual licensing approvals; the acquisition fully closed in April 2024. By mid-2026, Fanatics Sportsbook operated in 22 states plus Washington, D.C.
Fanatics Markets: What King Is Building Next
In December 2025, Fanatics launched Fanatics Markets, a prediction market app that lets users trade on the outcome of sports, political, and other real-world events. The product runs under federal oversight from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission rather than state gambling licenses. That structure lets Fanatics reach customers in states where sports betting still isn’t legal.
King has described the goal as giving fans a safe and intuitive way to engage with the moments that move sports and culture. Fanatics built the platform with Crypto.com and gained its regulatory clearance through the acquisition of Paragon Global Markets.
By early 2026, Matt King told CNBC that Fanatics was taking real market share in states without legal sports betting, where prediction markets faced no competition from FanDuel or DraftKings’ own sportsbook apps. Rubin has said gaming could account for 40 percent of Fanatics’ profits within the company’s five-year plan.
Matt King on Prediction Markets vs Sportsbooks
Unlike some sportsbook executives who treat prediction markets as a threat, King has taken a calmer public stance. Speaking in March 2026, he said regulation is better than no regulation when discussing sports betting’s patchwork of state laws. He also predicted prediction markets and sportsbooks would settle into a stable coexistence rather than one replacing the other.
That view fits his position well. King now runs both a state-licensed sportsbook and a federally regulated prediction market under the same company, so a fight between the two products would be a fight with himself.
| Feature | Fanatics Sportsbook | Fanatics Markets |
| Regulator | State gaming commissions | CFTC (federal) |
| Product type | Fixed-odds sports betting | Event contract trading |
| Launched | January 2023 | December 2025 |
| Availability | 22 states plus D.C. (2026) | Live in additional states, including some without legal sports betting |
The Bottom Line
King spent seven years turning FanDuel into a sportsbook heavyweight, then spent the next several years building Fanatics’ betting business almost from scratch. Fanatics Sportsbook still trails FanDuel and DraftKings by a wide margin, but Fanatics Markets gives the company a second way to reach bettors, including in states sportsbooks can’t touch yet. Watch how King balances those two products as prediction markets face more regulatory scrutiny through the rest of 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Matt King?
Matt King is the CEO of Fanatics Betting & Gaming. He took the role in July 2021 after seven years leading FanDuel, first as chief financial officer and then as chief executive officer.
What company did Matt King run before Fanatics?
King was CEO of FanDuel from November 2017 to May 2021, after two years as the company’s chief financial officer. Before entering the gambling industry, he spent 11 years at KKR Capstone, a private equity operating firm.
Did FanDuel’s revenue really grow to almost $2 billion under Matt King?
Fanatics’ own bio for King, along with several independent executive profiles, reports that FanDuel’s revenue grew from about $120 million to nearly $2 billion during King’s roughly seven years leading the company, spanning both his CFO and CEO tenures.
What is Fanatics Markets?
Fanatics Markets is a prediction market app that Fanatics launched in December 2025. It lets users trade on the outcome of sports, political, and other real-world events under federal oversight from the CFTC rather than state gambling licenses.
How many states is Fanatics Sportsbook live in?
As of mid-2026, Fanatics Sportsbook operates in 22 states plus Washington, D.C. The company expanded quickly after its 2023 launch, partly through its purchase of PointsBet’s US operating licenses.