Political action committees backed by DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics and Bet365 returned to the air on October 6, targeting state-level races in Alabama, Illinois, Georgia and Maryland as November 3 draws closer.
The advertising pause lasted through the summer. Now it has ended, and the money behind it is substantial: nearly $100 million has moved from sportsbook operators into a network of political committees over the past year, channeled primarily through Win for America PAC. DraftKings, Fanatics and Bet365 contributed a combined $9.65 million in the third quarter alone.
What makes this worth watching is not the dollar figure. It is the architecture. American Future PAC describes itself as a liberal political organization. Its ads use Democratic framing on immigration and property taxes. None of them mention sports betting. The American Conservative Fund runs the same play on the other side. Both committees draw from the same underlying network. The industry has built a bipartisan funding structure that is invisible to the voter receiving the mailer.
This is not unusual in American political spending — the routing of industry money through ideologically branded committees is well-established practice. What is unusual is the specific legislative pressure driving it. The sportsbook operators are not lobbying Washington. They are targeting the chambers that decide whether their licenses exist at all: state legislatures and the governors who sign what those legislatures pass.
The prediction market and sports betting industries are fighting the same battle at the state level right now, from different positions. Kalshi and Underdog are in federal court arguing that CFTC jurisdiction preempts state authority. The sportsbook operators are taking the opposite approach — working the state political infrastructure rather than trying to bypass it. Both strategies can be right simultaneously, for different products and different legal footings, and it is worth noting that the operators funding these PACs have existing state licenses they cannot afford to antagonize.
The consensus read on this spending is that it is a defensive measure: protect the regulatory environment you have. I think it is also something more specific. The midterm cycle lands just as several states are moving to expand or restrict mobile wagering access, and the committee filings show targeting concentrated in states with live legislative races on gambling-adjacent issues. That is not a blanket insurance policy. That is a directed bet on specific outcomes in specific chambers.
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Sportsbook operators including DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics and Bet365 channel contributions through ideologically branded committees like American Future PAC and American Conservative Fund, which use Democratic or conservative framing on unrelated issues like immigration and property taxes without mentioning sports betting. Nearly $100 million moved through this network over the past year, primarily via Win for America PAC, creating a bipartisan funding structure invisible to voters receiving mailers. This architecture allows the industry to influence state legislatures and governors who control their operating licenses while obscuring the betting industry's hand.
Political action committees backed by sportsbook operators resumed advertising on October 6, targeting state-level races in Alabama, Illinois, Georgia and Maryland as November 3 approached. The targeting concentrated in states with live legislative races on gambling-adjacent issues, showing the committees focused on specific chambers rather than blanket spending. DraftKings, Fanatics and Bet365 alone contributed $9.65 million in the third quarter.
Sportsbook operators with existing state licenses cannot afford to antagonize the regulatory environment that permits their operations, so they work state political infrastructure rather than attempting federal preemption. This contrasts with prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Underdog, which argue in federal court that CFTC jurisdiction preempts state authority. The operators' strategy reflects their dependence on state legislatures and governors who sign gambling expansion or restriction bills.
The sportsbook PAC spending functions as a directed bet on specific legislative outcomes in specific state chambers rather than blanket insurance, according to analysis by Gambity. Platforms like Polymarket and PredictIt could theoretically price state-level gambling legislation outcomes, though neither currently lists active markets tied to this specific PAC spending. The question of whether $100 million across a network of committees can move enough state races to shift legislative math remains unresolved by available filings.
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