Why FanDuel Wins on Live, Action-Oriented Moments

Leaders from the world’s largest companies, equity research firms, hedge funds, and the Federal Reserve rely on Morning Consult’s 30,000 daily survey interviews in 45 countries covering more than 5,000 brands, economic indicators, and risk metrics. Category Advantage measures the drivers of brand strength by capturing mental availability and emotional closeness among competitors.

Category Advantage measures the drivers of brand strength by capturing both mental availability (likelihood a brand comes to mind) and emotional closeness (how strongly consumers connect with a brand) among all competitors. Schedule a private briefing on this research. .

The bottom line up front  

FanDuel is the default brand for live, action-oriented moments in prediction and betting markets. When something is happening right now and people want to check odds, act quickly, and participate while an event is unfolding, FanDuel is the brand they most naturally think of. This is not broad relevance across all prediction scenarios — it is dominance in the highest-frequency entry points in the category. FanDuel wins by being obvious in fast, shared, real-time moments. The strategic challenge is to extend that real-time authority into adjacent live events without drifting into slower, more analytical territory that belongs to other brands. Clarity and speed are FanDuel’s most defensible advantages.

The Category Landscape

Prediction and betting markets are a system of entry moments ranging from high-velocity, high-emotion triggers to slower, more deliberative ones. FanDuel competes at the fast, action-oriented end. People enter through triggers like:

• Live action moments: “Checking odds before or during a sporting event.” This is FanDuel’s home base
• Quick money moments: “Making quick and easy money”; “Exploring a source of steady income.”
• Social comparison moments: “Earning bragging rights”; “Comparing predictions with friends.”
• Real-time tracking moments: “Tracking outcomes of real-world events as they unfold.”

FanDuel is recalled when people want to act in the moment and see results quickly. While sports remains the clearest anchor, FanDuel is also meaningfully present in non-sports live-event moments, as long as those moments preserve immediacy and fast feedback.

FanDuels’s competitive strengths:

• FanDuel dominates the highest-frequency entry point in the category. At 58% on “checking odds before or during a sporting event,” FanDuel leads the category’s most common trigger. This is not just awareness — it is being the default answer at the exact moment of action.
• FanDuel’s associations are concentrated where it matters most. The brand shows strong retrieval on: quick money (51%), bragging rights (48%), comparing predictions with friends (47%), knowledge-based returns (40%), steady income (37%), diversification (36%), and real-time tracking (34%). This is a focused network weighted toward live, high-frequency moments.
• Social competition reinforces live participation. FanDuel’s strong associations with bragging rights (48%) and comparing predictions (47%) mean the brand benefits from shared attention and social proof. These moments amplify FanDuel’s core strength rather than replacing it.
• FanDuel is more likely to be retrieved first at the point of entry. Because FanDuel dominates the moments that occur most often, are easiest to recognize, and require the least cognitive setup, it has a structural advantage in top-of-mind retrieval during live events.

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Fanduel's challenges:

• Focused strength creates natural boundaries. FanDuel’s concentrated associations are an asset in live moments, but the brand is less strongly associated with slower, deliberative forecasting, long-horizon prediction, or complex news interpretation. These moments belong to other brands.
• Extension requires discipline. The temptation to claim broader territory risks diluting the sharp mental role that makes FanDuel obvious in its core moments. Growth must preserve clarity and speed.
• Analytical and forecasting moments favor competitors. Brands positioned around analysis, foresight, or information aggregation own the slower-tempo moments FanDuel does not. This is not a weakness to fix — it is a boundary to respect.
  
  The core insight: FanDuel wins by being the obvious choice when something is happening right now. The brand’s mental sequence is clear: Something is happening now → I check FanDuel → I act → I see the result → I talk about it. This keeps FanDuel anchored in action first, with social payoff as a follow-on benefit. The strategic imperative is to reinforce this sequence relentlessly in sports, and extend it carefully into adjacent live-event moments that preserve the same logic.

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Who uses FanDuel today

• Demographics: Skew male, young, educated, higher-income, with strong interest in sports and live events.
• Psychographics: Drawn to speed, action, and real-time participation. They want to be in the moment, not observing from a distance. Value excitement and momentum.
• Media footprint: Highly active in sports media and live commentary environments. Heavy users of social platforms that reward real-time reaction and sharing. Formats emphasizing liveness and shared moments disproportionately reinforce FanDuel’s mental availability.

• Live sports participants: Anyone whose category entry is triggered by a game in progress, odds checking, or real-time sports conversation. FanDuel’s 58% association with checking odds makes these users the core constituency.
• Social bettors: Users who want bragging rights (48%), who compare predictions with friends (47%), who share outcomes publicly. FanDuel’s social entry points reinforce live participation.

• Live event participants beyond sports: Users who enter the category through major cultural events, high-attention real-world moments with fast resolution, or situations where outcomes change quickly and publicly. FanDuel’s 34% on real-time tracking is a foothold to build on.
• Action-oriented money seekers: Users motivated by quick money (51%) and steady income (37%) — framed around situational, contextual action rather than long-horizon analysis. FanDuel’s immediacy positioning is compatible.

Five strategic priorities for FanDuel based on this research

1. Defend the live-moment core relentlessly. FanDuel’s primary role should remain explicit: the fastest way to participate when something is happening live. Continue to over-invest in game-time and live-event cues, reinforce the habit of “check FanDuel now,” and ensure product and communications remove friction at the moment of action. This is FanDuel’s most defensible advantage.

2. Extend into adjacent live events — not analytical prediction. Growth should come from moments that preserve liveness: major cultural or entertainment events, high-attention real-world moments with fast resolution, situations where outcomes change quickly and publicly. FanDuel’s 34% on real-time tracking is a foundation. Avoid repositioning as a platform for long-range forecasting or complex interpretation.

3. Use social competition as reinforcement, not the lead. FanDuel’s strong associations with bragging rights (48%) and comparing predictions (47%) should continue to amplify live participation rather than replace it as the core story. The winning sequence is: action first, social payoff second.

4. Be disciplined with ‘knowledge’ framing. FanDuel’s 40% on knowledge-based returns is solid, but this knowledge is best framed as situational, context-specific, and tied to what’s happening right now. Resist broader claims about foresight or long-term predictive insight, which risk blurring the brand’s sharp mental role.

5. Measure success through retrieval speed, not just breadth. Future success should be judged by sustained leadership in live sports moments, incremental growth in non-sports live-event entry points, stable or increasing network size without dilution of core associations, and clear differentiation from analytical or forecasting-led brands.

About this research

Morning Consult conducts over 30,000 daily proprietary surveys in 45 countries covering more than 5,000 brands and 50 economic indicators. 

Our category advantage research is aimed at understanding the needs driving consumers in your category — and how your brand can own more of them. This research is built on validated principles of brand-driven growth and powered by Morning Consult’s industry-leading sampling technology.

Measure the true drivers of brand strength

Capture both mental availability (the likelihood your brand comes to mind when consumers face a need or occasion) and emotional closeness (how strongly consumers connect with your brand), benchmarked against competitors.

Uncover Category Entry Points (CEPs)

Directly tied to mental availability, see the specific needs, occasions, and triggers that drive purchase decisions in your category, and how strongly your brand is linked to them.

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Direct investment toward the moments and consumer segments with the greatest potential to grow your brand.

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