Fanatics, the sports platform and e-commerce company valued at more than $27bn, has announced that Andrea Ellis has been named as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the sports betting and gaming division.
CEO of the company, Michael Rubin, also revealed that Fanatics expects to launch its sports betting platform in January 2023.
Ellis has worked as CFO at Lime, the largest electric scooter and bike share company, for the past two years. She'll report to the Fanatics Betting and Gaming CEO, Matt King, who was formally with FanDuel.
King commented: "We are thrilled to welcome Andrea to our team as we inch closer to formally launching a new, dynamic online sports-betting and gaming product for fans."
Her responsibilities include scaling the newly-formed division and providing strategic and operational leadership.
Launching in January would put Fanatics right in the middle of the NFL playoffs and the middle of the NBA regular season. The company expects to be operational in every state that has legalized sports betting by the onset of the 23/24 NFL season.
Rubin said at a Sports Business Journal World Congress of Sports event: "We’ll be in every major state other than New York, where you can’t make money."
In the fall of last year, Fanatics applied for a mobile-betting license in New York but wasn't selected.
FanDuel CEO Amy Howe told G2E: "It’s not inconceivable to think that the top two or three [operators] will drive somewhere between 60, potentially 70% of the market."
According to Rubin, the company plans to reveal a loyalty program to incentivize players to bet on the Fanatics platform.
He said: "You buy merchandise? You’re incented to game. You gamble? You’re incented to get a collectible."
