Fanatics Sportsbook’s Groundbreaking Fair Play Insurance Has Massive Impact

Patrick Everson Sports Betting Expert

2 minute read

In the seven-plus years since the Supreme Court overturned PASPA, legal sports betting has spread across the United States. And the means by which many engage in the regulated market have seen immense change, as well.

Player props are now huge, in straight bets and particularly in parlays. But as we all know, early-game injuries can blow up those bets.

In September 2024, Fanatics Sportsbook introduced a solution: Fair Play injury protection. The results since then have been eye-popping, even drawing the attention of a larger competitor in the sports betting space.

(Feature image: Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn Images

Fanatics Fair Play Explained

Fan First

A couple of weeks into the 2024-25 NFL season, Fanatics officially launched Fair Play. The initiative called for refunds on player-prop straight bets and for voiding any player-prop leg of a parlay impacted by injury.

"We are fan first and sports fan first," Fanatics Vice President of Industry Communications Kevin Hennessy said. "One of the main pain points we saw was when a player gets injured and has to leave the game. It's such a frustrating experience for those who bet player props."

Fair Play helped alleviate such bad experiences. For NFL regular-season games, Fair Play offered refunds/voids if a player was injured in the first quarter and didn't return to action. Fanatics offered the same insurance during the NBA regular season, then extended it from first-quarter injuries to first-half injuries for the playoffs.

Fanatics now offers Fair Play for several pro sports: NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, soccer, golf and tennis. And the insurance extends to in-play bets, as well.

Over the past 11 months, Fanatics Sportsbook says Fair Play has saved more than 500,000 bets and paid out $10 million in straight-bet refunds/parlay winnings that would otherwise have been losses.

Following Fanatics' Lead

In addition, Fanatics estimated that $54 million in player prop bets were lost at sportsbooks that didn't have a Fair Play-type policy.

"Fanatics is doing something that customers are gravitating toward. And the competition is replicating that, following our lead," Hennessy said.

Indeed, DraftKings Sportsbook introduced its Early Exit policy on Aug. 1. It mimicked Fanatics' policy for NBA and NFL, among other sports. Among notable contrasts:

• DK's policy is for pre-match, full-game player props only; as noted above, Fanatics' policy extends to in-play props and first-half/first-quarter props.

On Aug. 18, Fanatics announced that its NFL regular-season policy would extend from first-quarter injuries to first-half injuries. With that came a little good-spirited ribbing from Fanatics in a social media post featuring Livvy Dunne, the former LSU gymnast.

Subsequently, DraftKings extended its NFL policy from first-quarter injuries to first-half injuries. And in the final days before the NFL kicked off, FanDuel Sportsbook launched a similar Bet Protect policy on player props, while ESPN BET debuted its Injury Insurance.

Fanatics is more than happy to have been the trend-setter, nearly a year ahead of anyone else.

"Fanatics Sportsbook was the first to introduce Fair Play player prop protection to the industry, and we were the first to introduce it for the first half, in the NBA and now the NFL," Hennessy said.

Patrick Everson

Patrick Everson is a senior reporter for VegasInsider. Based in Las Vegas since 1994, he's worked in the sports betting journalism/content space for more than a decade. He's most known for his deep roster of contacts behind sportsbook counters, providing readers and viewers with the ins-and-outs of how events are being bet. He's also a thought leader in the sports betting space, often appearing on or moderating panels at national conferences. More from Patrick Everson