Fanatics Inc., the online sports-apparel giant, is offering customers up to $150 in merchandise credit if they sign up for and use its new betting app at the start of the NFL season.

Every year, that’s the unofficial mantra for many U.S. sportsbooks launching new products or new features. The long-awaited Fanatics betting vertical just successfully hit that target, closing a large chunk of its $225 million acquisition of PointBet’s U.S. business Thursday, a week before the NFL’s opening night.

Fanatics Betting and Gaming, the online and retail sports betting subsidiary of Fanatics Holdings, Inc., yesterday officially launched the Fanatics Sportsbook online in Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio and Tennessee.

Fanatics, an online retailer in sports apparel, has put its stamp on the sports betting industry.

Fanatics will open a Columbus Blue Jackets retail sportsbook.

Retail sportsbooks are becoming the must-have amenity for professional sports franchises in Ohio. The Columbus Blue Jackets hopped on the trend Tuesday, as Fanatics Betting and Gaming, the online and retail sports betting company within the global digital sports platform, announced plans for one adjacent Nationwide Arena.

PointsBet has finally come to an agreement to sell its US betting business, the company announced on Tuesday.

For Fanatics Betting and Gaming chief executive Matt King, the challenge he is taking on isn’t building a market leader. He’s already done that during his tenure at FanDuel, which is currently sitting with a seemingly unassailable market share across the US. Revenue there grew from $200m to over $1bn on his watch.

Fanatics Inc. is late to the sports-betting game. Its chief executive thinks he has a strong hand.

FedEx Field made history Friday by partnering with Fanatics to open the first legal sports betting operation inside an NFL stadium.

It was halftime of a 76ers game, and the owners’ lounge, in the bowels of Wells Fargo arena, was humming: Bartenders poured Opus One wine into plastic cups; Pat’s cheesesteaks lined the buffet table; and those lucky enough to have courtside seats for the game filed in to mingle.

Fanatics is getting one step closer to launching its highly anticipated sports-gambling division, nearly five years after the Supreme Court overturned the rule preventing states from legalizing bets on sporting events.

Sports-merchandise retailer Fanatics Inc. has hired Jason White as chief marketing officer of Fanatics Betting and Gaming, its nascent online sports-gambling division.