The Sportsbook Grayevard: Tracking Every U.S. Sports Betting App That’s Shut Down So Far

The U.S. sports betting market was supposed to be a gold rush for everyone — European operators looking for growth, U.S. media brands who could seamlessly transition their audience to bettors, and upstarts with differentiated products.

Instead, it's been a two-horse race, with DraftKings and FanDuel controlling 70%+ of the market, about eight other books jockeying for the remaining 30%, and many others grabbing less than 1% market share in the states they operate.

We count 13 licensed U.S. operators that have shut down or are in the process of shutting down as of spring 2024. Some other operators not included here have exited some states but continue to operate in others, like WynnBet and Betr.

If I missed any, hit me up on Twitter. Here's the full list:

The U.S. Sportsbook Graveyard

PointsBet

• Shutdown date: May 2024
• States where it operated: CO IA IL IN KS LA MD MI NJ NY OH PA VA WV

The Australian-based PointsBet made the biggest splash of any non-U.S. native brand early on, but struggled to make a meaningful dent into the DraftKings and FanDuel duopoly. In 2023, they sold their U.S. assets to Fanatics, which began to convert PointsBet's state licenses to the Fanatics Sportsbook product in the fall of 2023. That transition finished in May of 2024 when Fanatics launched in New Jersey and shut down PointsBet's operations in all other states where both books had licenses.

Fanatics initially agreed to a $150 million deal for PointsBet, but had to up its offer by $75 million after a late bid from DraftKings.

SI Sportsbook

• Shutdown date: In Progress
• States where it operated: CO MI VA

The modern history of the SI brand and its eventual exit from sports betting is a confusing one.

Authentic Brands Group bought the right to license the Sports Illustrated brand in 2019 from Meredith Corp. (which owned Time Magazine, SI, and many other brands) for north of $100 million. They licensed SI's publishing rights to a company called Arena Group, which ran the content on SI.com (until it went delinquent on its payments in early 2024).

Authentic Brands separately licensed the sportsbook name to 888 Holdings, an Israeli company that's owned and operated online gambling sites since the late 1990s.

888 operated the sportsbook for several years but in March 2024, decided to sell its U.S. assets to Hard Rock Digital and close SI Sportsbook. 888 paid $50 million to break the licensing deal with Authentic.

Unibet

• Shutdown date: Spring 2024
• States where it operated: AZ IN NJ PA VA

Unibet had a five-state footprint, including some big markets like New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania. It entered NJ in August 2018, immediately after P.A.S.P.A. was repealed, but never made a dent, and announced it would shut down sometime in May and June of 2024.

The European operator used odds and tech provider Kambi to power its U.S. product, which resulted in an identical experience to many other little-used sportsbooks.

Barstool Sportsbook

• Shutdown date: November 2023
• States where it operated: AZ CO IL IN IA KS LA KY MA MD MI NJ OH PA TN VA WV

PENN Entertainment acquired Barstool Sports in January 2020 and launched its sportsbook brand on the back of the popular media company. In 2023, it made a big pivot — PENN divested from Barstool and sold it back to founder Dave Portnoy for $1, then licensed the ESPN brand to launch ESPN BET (though the product it ran Barstool and now with ESPN are identical).

PENN paid $1.5 billion over 10 years for the ESPN brand, and has gotten mixed early results in its quest for 20% market share in the U.S.

FOX Bet

• Shutdown date: August 2023
• States where it operated: CO MI NJ PA

FOX Bet had a weird history. They were the first U.S. media company to launch a sportsbook app, getting FOX Bet live in partnership with The Stars Group in 2019, hoping to replicate the success of sportsbook like Sky Bet in the UK.

But then Flutter (FanDuel's parent company) acquired The Stars Group later in 2019, and FOX sued Flutter over a purchasing option that granted FOX the chance to buy an 18.6% stake in FanDuel for $3.7 billion. They won the suit, retained that option, and Flutter decided to shut down FOX Bet in August of 2023.

If not for that lawsuit, Flutter may have shut down FOX Bet much sooner, but it dangled in purgatory for several years because of it.

Elite Sportsbook

• Shutdown date: June 2023
• States where it operated: CO IA

Elite Casino Resorts owns a handful of casinos in Iowa and operated sports betting kiosks at its retail locations. Its online product never gained any traction, and they shut down in the summer of 2023.

PlayUp

• Shutdown date: July 2023
• States where it operated: CO NJ

PlayUp's demise is perhaps the juiciest of any U.S. sportsbook.

The Australian-based PlayUp never made a dent in the U.S. market, but was close to selling to now-infamous crypto exchange FTX in 2021 for $450 million. That fell through (allegedly because the U.S. CEO sabotaged the deal, according to a lawsuit, which she denies). Then a SPAC tried to take PlayUp public in a $350 million deal, but that didn't work out either.

In the summer of 2023, CEO Daniel Simic said PlayUp had agreed to a sale with a publicly listed company. But just days later, the NJ DGE revoked PlayUp's license because it failed to pay its payroll taxes and didn't have enough employees to operate. Then a week later, it shut down in Colorado.

Maverick Sports

• Shutdown date: July 2023
• States where it operated: CO

Maverick shut down its online product in July 2023 and encouraged users to bet at their three retail sportsbooks in Colorado. Then two weeks later, they shut those down, too.

Sky Ute

• Shutdown date: July 2023
• States where it operated: CO

Sky Ute had a similar story to Maverick and Elite — a local retail casino group that never had any online sports betting traction and quietly shut down in the summer of 2023.

Twinspires

• Shutdown date: January 2023
• States where it operated: AZ CO IN MI NJ PA TN

Twinspires seemingly had a chance to succeed in the U.S. given its huge horse racing footprint and userbase of horse bettors. But their sports betting product posted big losses and the company decided to focus on horse racing instead, where it says it had about 50% market share.

MaximBet

• Shutdown date: November 2022
• States where it operated: CO IN

In 2021, Maxim Magazine (yes, that Maxim Magazine) partnered with Carousel Group, to create MaximBet.

A year later, rapper Nicki Minaj was named its creative director and global ambassador, and a few months after that, it shut down.

Vie.gg

• Shutdown date: November 2022
• States where it operated: CO IN

Vie.gg was an esports-only betting app that shut down across the world — including in Spain, the UK, and New Jersey — in November of 2022.

Fubo Sportsbook

• Shutdown date: Oct. 2022
• States where it operated: CO IN

Fubo got into online sports betting by acquiring Vigtory, a low-juice sportsbook that never actually launched, in January of 2021. It used that infrastructure to launch Fubo Sportsbook later that year.

But in the fall of 2022, Fubo Sportsbook closed up shop after garnering very little interest or attention in the U.S. market. They promised an integrated experience with their television product that never materialized.

theScore Bet

• Shutdown date: July 2022
• States where it operated: CO IA IN NJ

PENN Entertainment bought theScore for $2 billion in 2021. theScore had been operating a sportsbook product in the U.S. and Ontario (where it's based), but PENN signaled quickly that it would consolidate its brands.

So PENN eventually used theScore's backend tech for Barstool Sportsbook and shut down theScore Bet's U.S. operation in 2022. It still uses that platform for ESPN BET and theScore Bet in Ontario.