Wall Street analysts are sticking with online sports betting platforms DraftKings and Flutter Entertainment , the owner of FanDuel, ahead of the start of the NFL season on Thursday. The American football season is expected to see a rise in consumer sports betting, said Needham Research analyst Bernie McTernan, noting that 71% of the firm’s pre-season survey respondents plan on placing some type of wager through a regulated sportsbook. That’s up from the 60% who said they placed a bet last year. Analysts largely agree on their top picks in the sector: DraftKings and Flutter. Both stocks are either buy or overweight rated at Macquarie, Stifel, JPMorgan and Needham Research. Thus far, both DraftKings and FanDuel are offering similar customer promotions compared to last season, McTernan said, although he noted that incentives from private company Fanatics are the most aggressive in the group ahead of the 2025 season. “[We] view DKNG/FLUT as best positioned for near-term upside from favorable NFL game outcomes, higher structural hold, and general OSB/iGaming growth momentum in 4Q,” Macquarie analyst Chad Beynon said in a note last month. DraftKings stock has climbed more than 28% in 2025, while Flutter Entertainment is up about 14%. DKNG YTD mountain DraftKings stock has gained more than 28% so far in 2025. “Our investing framework for the group remains the same. Long-term, we prefer DKNG/FLUT given compounding scale benefits and sustained rational competition, followed by omnichannel operators with iCasino-led strategies and NGR share momentum,” Stifel analyst Jeffrey Stantial said in a note earlier this week, referring to net gaming revenue. “Tactically, however, we position cautiously into NFL given buyside expectations for handle re-acceleration and potential downside risks, ongoing modest market share deconsolidation, and residual regulatory risks.” Both stocks saw marginal gains in the days that followed the opening of the 2024 season, data compiled by Macquarie showed. DraftKings stock advanced about 2% in the opening week of the 2024 season, while Flutter rose 1%. Both companies are among the largest publicly traded gambling stocks. DraftKings has a market capitalization of more than $23 billion, compared to about $52 billion for Flutter Entertainment. “Heading into the start of the key NFL season, we review recent market trends, marketing and promotions across players,” Morgan Stanley analyst Stephen Grambling said in a late August report. “As a reminder, the period surrounding the start of NFL has been a consistent window of outperformance from [online sports betting] stocks (FLUT/DKNG ~450bps vs. the S & P 500 over the past 4 years and 2025 is on pace for ~500bps) but this has historically given way to underperformance in the subsequent month.” FLUT YTD mountain Flutter Entertainment stock has notched a roughly 14% gain so far this year. Several analysts also pointed to how any of the companies’ moves into prediction markets could influence their future growth. “We think large OSB operators would be well-positioned to gain outsized sports prediction market share due to their superior [user interface/user experience], product/tech, brand awareness, and database targeting/marketing prowess,” JPMorgan analyst Daniel Politzer wrote in a Tuesday note. “Our base case assumes OSB operators move slowly/take a wait-and-see approach (neutral impact).” McTernan said that prediction markets seem to be “supplemental platforms,” although he also said that people that reported use of futures betting platforms are expected to be more frequent betters overall. “The most frequently cited responses for why a respondent used a prediction market instead of a regulated sportsbook were simpler platform, easier/better cash out and better odds,” McTernan said.
