Fanatics Sportsbook is legal in 22 states and Washington, D.C. You can place real-money wagers through the app if you are physically located in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, or Wyoming. Outside those jurisdictions, the app’s geolocation system will block your bet.
Fanatics expanded quickly after closing a $225 million acquisition of PointsBet’s U.S. operations, which transferred existing state licenses and the underlying technology to Fanatics in a single deal.1Fanatics Inc. Fanatics Betting and Gaming Closes its Acquisition of the US Businesses of PointsBet Each state on the list above licenses the sportsbook through its own gaming regulator, and the rules you bet under are the rules of the state you’re standing in.
Age and Location Requirements
The minimum age to bet with Fanatics is 21 in most states. Kentucky and Wyoming are the two exceptions, where the minimum is 18. Age is checked at account creation and tied to your verified identity, so there is no workaround for underage users.
Location matters at the moment of the wager, not when you signed up. Having a home address in a legal state doesn’t help if you’re across the border when you tap “place bet.” The reverse is also true: a visitor from a non-legal state can bet while physically inside, say, New Jersey, provided they can complete identity verification.
What You Can Bet On Varies by State
Legal access to the app is one question. What markets the app shows you is another, and college sports is where the differences get sharp.
Twelve Fanatics states ban player prop bets on college athletes entirely: Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia. A player prop is a wager on an individual athlete’s performance, such as a quarterback’s passing yards or a forward’s point total.
Four states take a middle approach, allowing college player props but blocking bets involving in-state teams: Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, and New Jersey. Indiana permits college player props but limits them to pre-game markets only. These rules come from state regulators, not Fanatics, so a market that’s live in Michigan can be grayed out in Massachusetts. The app sorts this out automatically based on where you are.
Who Cannot Use Fanatics
A few categories of people are barred from the platform no matter where they are. Anyone enrolled in a state’s voluntary self-exclusion program cannot wager with any licensed operator in that state, Fanatics included. Professional athletes, coaches, and league officials are typically prohibited under conflict-of-interest rules.
Placing bets on someone else’s behalf is a separate problem with federal consequences. The Wire Act makes transmitting bets across state lines a crime punishable by up to two years in prison, and Fanatics will close your account and void any winnings if it detects proxy betting.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1084 – Transmission of Wagering Information; Penalties
How Geolocation Enforces the State List
Every time you open the app and try to place a bet, geolocation software confirms your device is inside a licensed state. It uses GPS, Wi-Fi signals, and cell tower data in the background. Near a state border, you may get flagged occasionally even when you’re on the right side of the line. Moving to a clearer location usually resolves it.
Using a VPN to fake your location is the fastest way to lose your account. Sportsbooks treat location spoofing as a terms-of-service violation, and the standard response is account closure with all pending bets voided. Betting from an unauthorized state through a VPN can also trigger Wire Act exposure. The safer move is simply waiting until you cross into a legal state.
Signing Up in a Legal State
Account creation requires identity verification under federal anti-money-laundering rules. Sportsbooks follow Know Your Customer standards similar to banks.3FinCEN. FinCEN Correspondence with the American Gaming Association Regarding Sports Betting Conducted on Behalf of Third Parties You will need to provide:
- Your full legal name as it appears on a government-issued ID.
- A residential address, not a P.O. Box.
- Your date of birth.
- The last four digits of your Social Security number.
Most applications clear automatically in minutes. If the system cannot verify you against national databases, Fanatics may ask for a photo of your driver’s license or state ID for manual review, which takes longer. The verified identity on the account is the identity the state regulator relies on for every subsequent wager.
Taxes Apply in Every Legal State
Legality at the state level does not change your federal tax obligation. All gambling winnings are taxable income reported on Schedule 1 of Form 1040, whether or not Fanatics issues you a tax form.4Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 419, Gambling Income and Losses For 2026, sportsbooks must issue a Form W-2G when net winnings from a single bet reach at least $2,000 and the payout is at least 300 times the wager, with federal tax withholding kicking in above $5,000.5Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms W-2G and 5754 Many states with legal sports betting also tax winnings, so check your own state’s rules.
If You Need to Stop
Fanatics includes deposit, wager, and session-length limits inside the app.6Fanatics Sportsbook. Responsible Gaming Lowering a limit takes effect immediately; raising one requires a waiting period. For a harder break, every state with legal sports betting runs a voluntary self-exclusion program through its gaming regulator. Enrolling blocks you from every licensed operator in that state for the period you choose, and reversing it before the term ends is difficult by design.