Gambling Industry Gears Up for NFL Season Arms Race as Sportsbooks and Prediction Markets Ramp Up

The gambling industry is bracing for an all-out fight for bettors this NFL season, with legal sportsbooks and prediction-market platforms both pouring record money into advertising, promotions and customer acquisition. Executives from Penn Entertainment, BetMGM, Flutter Entertainment and DraftKings all flagged the coming clash during second-quarter earnings calls this week, framing the 2026 NFL season as the first true head-to-head battle between traditional sports betting and the fast-growing prediction-market sector.

The setup has been building for months. The 2026 FIFA World Cup gave both sides a preview of what a fully engaged betting audience looks like, and prediction markets came out of that event looking stronger than ever. Analysts at Jefferies said the tournament generated a record $20 billion in prediction-market volume, calling it by far the single biggest event the sector has ever seen — surpassing even the 2024 U.S. presidential election as the largest driver of activity for platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket.

Why Executives Are Calling It an “Arms Race”

Penn Entertainment CEO Jay Snowden was the one who put a name to what’s coming, telling analysts on Penn’s second-quarter call that the company expected “a very aggressive, irrational marketing spend, advertising, and new customer acquisition approach this football season.” His comments carry extra weight given the timing: FanDuel, DraftKings and Fanatics — the three largest U.S. sportsbooks by handle — all launched their own prediction-market platforms in December 2025, meaning this fall marks the first time those products will compete for NFL bettors across a complete season rather than just the tail end of one.

That puts sportsbook-linked prediction markets like FanDuel Predicts and DraftKings Predictions in direct competition with standalone platforms Kalshi and Polymarket, which have had a head start building NFL liquidity. Penn itself has chosen to sit out the prediction-market race entirely, instead focusing on profitability for its online sportsbook business under theScore Bet — a notably different strategic bet than its three biggest rivals are making.

The Numbers Behind the Spending Spree

DraftKings offered the clearest look yet at how quickly the category is scaling. CEO Jason Robins said the company’s predictions platform grew from an annualized $2.3 billion in volume in April to $11 billion by July, with more than 600,000 customers engaging with the product since its December 2025 launch. Robins expects that number to “explode” once the NFL season begins, and he pushed back directly against rivals Kalshi and Polymarket during a CNBC appearance, welcoming the competition while accusing the pure-play platforms of spreading misleading narratives about the industry.

DraftKings posted $1.99 billion in sports betting revenue for the quarter, up nearly 6% year over year, though total company revenue slipped to $1.44 billion — about $69 million lower than a year ago — as customer-friendly outcomes and heavier promotional spending ate into the bottom line. Robins also noted that DraftKings sees only about 1% customer overlap between its sportsbook and the largest prediction-market operator in states with legal betting, suggesting the two products are largely pulling from different audiences rather than cannibalizing each other.

Flutter Entertainment, FanDuel’s parent company, told investors that FanDuel Predicts generated just $6 million in revenue for the quarter — a sign the operator is still 9 to 12 months behind DraftKings in building out its prediction-market business, according to industry estimates. Flutter also announced it’s shifting FanDuel Predicts’ sports and novelty contracts from CME to Crypto.com, a move the company says will let it “deliver new products at pace ahead of the NFL season start.”

What It Means Heading Into Kickoff

With Kalshi and Polymarket already holding a liquidity edge on NFL markets and sportsbook operators now throwing real marketing weight behind their own predictions products, bettors should expect to see far more competing offers, sign-up incentives and cross-platform pricing differences once Week 1 arrives. For customers shopping around, that competition can translate directly into better promotional value — which is exactly why comparing offers across DraftKings promo code terms and other operators before the season starts is worth the extra few minutes.

Whether the “arms race” framing proves accurate will become clear fast. Unlike the World Cup, which was a finite, if massive, event, the NFL runs a full 18-week regular season plus playoffs — giving every platform involved months to prove whether this spending surge turns into lasting market share or just an expensive fight for attention.