FanDuel’s Elevated NFL Hold Drives Revenue Surge

FanDuel ended the 2025/26 NFL season with elevated betting margins that boosted quarterly revenue but reduced customer activity, reporting fourth-quarter revenue of about $1.5 billion, up 35% year-on-year. 

The quarter represents the peak football betting period. Total handle increased just 3% from the fourth quarter of 2024, indicating that revenue growth was driven largely by stronger hold rather than increased wagering volume.

Across the NFL season, FanDuel retained 19.2% of all wagers placed on its platform. In several weeks near the end of the season, hold exceeded 30%. Those levels are high by industry standards. DraftKings reported a 16% hold for the same 2025/26 NFL season.

Flutter Entertainment CEO Peter Jackson acknowledged the effect on bettors. He added that some customers reduced their betting activity after sustained losses.

“It is fair to say that we did not execute our generosity strategy as well as we should have done,” Jackson said during an earnings call. “We pushed hard in the beginning of Q4, and when you look at what the pattern of gross win margins were throughout the back end of Q4, we just saw this very sustained period, including a number of weeks of, as I said earlier, above 30%. We should have pushed harder on generosity at those points, and we did not.”

FanDuel promotes same-game parlays, which typically generate higher margins than traditional wagers. In November, the company introduced a feature allowing groups of users to build parlays together. The product was marketed during Thanksgiving, one of the busiest periods of the NFL calendar.

Industry data shows that half of online sports bettors chase losses. Around 60% of NFL bettors report wagering more than intended. Many customers hold accounts with several of the best sports betting sites and may shift activity if results on one platform are poor. 

FanDuel lost market share late in the season as betting activity slowed. However, it was responsible for a large portion of the $16.37 billion won by legal sportsbooks last year.

Missouri sportsbooks offset profits

The freshly launched Missouri sports betting market is also looking to be profitable for FanDuel. Missouri became the 31st US state to offer sports wagering when it launched on Dec. 1. During the first two months, bettors placed $928 million in wagers, according to the Missouri Gaming Commission. 

FanDuel and DraftKings handled 73% of the total wagered across all Missouri sports betting apps.

Across eight mobile platforms and eight retail sportsbooks, operators netted $157.7 million from lost wagers in the period. Mobile platforms accounted for 99% of those profits. FanDuel and DraftKings represented 77% of operator winnings and combined to generate $120 million from Missouri bettors.

Missouri applies a 10% tax rate to sportsbook revenue. However, the constitutional amendment passed in 2024 allows operators to deduct promotional wagers, federal taxes, and other business expenses before calculating taxable income.

Through those deductions, the two companies offset their entire taxable amount during the first two months of operations. Missouri collected $659,196 in taxes over the period, representing less than 0.5% of total operator winnings during the market’s launch phase.