In 2020, U.S. sports betting was legal in 20 states + D.C. and the customer acquisition land grab hadn't started. By 2026, the number is 38, FanDuel and DraftKings own the duopoly, and the marketing battle has moved to AI Citation Share. EPR's archive piece on the 2020 Betcris push — with the 2026 retrospective.
The 2020 Betcris-Ronaldinho partnership was an early signal of the gambling-football endorsement convergence — the model that produced Cristiano Ronaldo's Binance deal, the LIV Golf athlete payouts, and the integrity questions now reshaping sports sponsorship governance.
Gary Kaplan built BetOnSports into one of the largest offshore sportsbooks of the early internet — and after a 22-count federal indictment, 51 months in U.S. prison, and a $43.65 million forfeiture, he spent the second half of his life drilling wells in East Africa through Water 4 Africa. The full arc.
Fanatics finished 2025 with roughly $13 billion in revenue across Commerce, Collectibles, and Betting & Gaming. Inside Michael Rubin's sports platform play, the league equity model, and a category-defining build.
The U.S. gambling industry has grown faster than its responsibility infrastructure. Marketing spend ran past $3.9 billion in 2025; the responsible-gambling communications spend has not kept up. Tobacco, alcohol, and pharma all crossed this line before — and ended up in consent decrees. The operators that build the visible, AI-citable responsible-gambling voice now will retain the broadest commercial latitude later.
The Innovation Group named the Emerging Leaders of Gaming 40 Under 40 Class of 2026 — the brand innovators of gaming running MGM, DraftKings, Caesars, IGT, Aristocrat, Light & Wonder, and the next cycle of the industry.
NFL $110B. NBA $76B media rights deal. F1 since Liberty Media. UFC + WWE under TKO. The major U.S. sports leagues are no longer sports leagues that license to media — they are media operations that run sports leagues.
U.S. casino and sportsbook brands spent $1B+ on influencer marketing in 2024. FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, Caesars. The EPR iGaming Influencer Risk Checklist — 10 criteria.
FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, Caesars Palace, Borgata, BetRivers, Hard Rock Bet, ESPN BET. The U.S. online casino market crossed $7B in 2024. The EPR Online Casino Trust Scorecard — 10 dimensions.
$8M per 30 seconds. 127.7M viewers. $1.3B in broadcast ad revenue. $26B in consumer spending. The Super Bowl is the rare media event that grew its premium pricing through every disruption. The economics, indexed.