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PrizePicks: how DFS pick'em became a $2.5bn US business

PrizePicks turned a simple more-or-less fantasy format into €868m of 2025 net revenue, drew regulator action in three states and an adverse opinion in California, and sold 62.3% to Allwyn.

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Gold trophy cup with an enamel brand plate on a dark wooden bench

PrizePicks is a US daily fantasy sports app built on pick'em contests, where players call "more" or "less" on athlete stats. In 2025 it reached €868 million of net revenue (unaudited, shown by Allwyn for reference), up 39% at constant currency, and €321 million of adjusted EBITDA. In January 2026 Allwyn bought 62.3% at a $2.5 billion upfront enterprise value.

Results at a glance

MetricValueNote
Net revenue, 2025€868m (2024: €650m)+39% at constant currency, +34% reported; unaudited, not consolidated by Allwyn in 2025
Adjusted EBITDA, 2025€321m, 37.0% margin2024: €204m, 31.4% margin
Allwyn deal62.3% stake, $1,504m paid at closingSubject to customary post-closing adjustments; upfront enterprise value $2.5bn; earnout of up to $1.0bn in 2029
Player base20m+ registered accounts, about 2m monthly activesCompany figures, September 2025
Footprint45+ US jurisdictionsLicensed in 14 states that require a fantasy licence (company figure, September 2025)
New York penalty$14,969,688February 2024 settlement, reported by ESPN

Financial and player figures come from Allwyn's deal presentation of September 22, 2025 and its FY 2025 results of March 19, 2026.

Context

PrizePicks is the trading name of SidePrize LLC, an Atlanta-based company, according to Atlanta local press. Allwyn's deck names Adam Wexler and Jay Deuskar as co-founders. We found no company-published funding total, and third-party databases disagree, so we leave funding out.

Allwyn's deal deck rests the legal footing on the fantasy-sports carve-out in the 2006 federal Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, then on state law. Some states license fantasy contests by statute; elsewhere operators rely on legal opinions that treat fantasy as a game of skill.

How does PrizePicks work? A player picks two to six athlete stats from games that day, such as points scored, and says whether each will land above or below the posted projection. The player pays an entry fee or plays a free version. That short entry flow set it apart from classic salary-cap fantasy, which asks players to build a full roster under a budget.

What PrizePicks did

Product: one simple format, built in-house

The company kept one core format and made it fast on mobile. Allwyn describes its pricing and risk management as 100% in-house, with custom responsible-gaming tools. That control mattered once states objected. PrizePicks could change contest rules per jurisdiction, adding entry caps or prize limits, and it built a peer-to-peer game called Arena for states that rejected contests played against the house. In August 2025 it announced a move to Arena in every state and territory where it operates, SBC Americas and Covers reported. Allwyn's September 2025 deck states that in all paid PrizePicks contests players compete against one another.

Acquisition: community and influencers

Neither Allwyn's documents nor the company disclosed marketing spend or acquisition cost. What Allwyn did publish is reach. It credits "strategic influencer partnerships" for the brand. It also counted members of PrizePicks' official Discord: 615,000 on September 13, 2025, against 273,000 for a leading US sportsbook and 118,000 for a rival fantasy app. In our October 2026 check of US Google results for "prizepicks", company pages ranked first and third, one of them carrying its own promo-code playbook, so high-intent brand searches land with the company, not with affiliates.

Management: a gaming bench

In August 2024 the company hired Mike Ybarra, the former president of Blizzard Entertainment, as CEO. The CFO came from Blizzard and the CMO from Niantic, the Pokemon GO studio. Allwyn's deck presents the team through that games-industry experience.

Exit and the prediction-market turn

Allwyn, the European lottery group, agreed on September 22, 2025 to buy about 62.3%. Founders and managers kept most of their stakes and the brand runs standalone. After registering with the National Futures Association, which Allwyn says made it the first sports entertainment platform to do so, PrizePicks added prediction markets inside the app in November 2025: "Team Picks" on match results and "Culture Picks" on politics and pop culture. Trade press reported the first contracts were routed through Kalshi. Our explainer covers how prediction markets work, and the Kalshi and Polymarket growth case shows the exchanges' side.

Each action has its own scope; none settles whether pick'em is legal elsewhere; our state-by-state legality guide tracks that. This is a summary of reported actions, not legal advice.

  • New York. Rules adopted in October 2023 barred pick'em contests played against the house. In February 2024 PrizePicks settled with the New York State Gaming Commission, agreeing to stop paid contests in the state and pay $14,969,688, a sum tied to its New York revenue from June 2019 to December 2023, ESPN reported. It received an interactive fantasy sports licence in October 2025 and returned with peer-to-peer contests by February 2026, according to trade press.

  • Florida. The Florida Gaming Control Commission sent PrizePicks a cease-and-desist letter in September 2023. Legal Sports Report wrote in January 2024 that PrizePicks and Underdog planned to pull those pick'em contests from the state by March 1, 2024. PrizePicks relaunched in Florida with Arena in April 2024, Legal Sports Report and SBC Americas reported.

  • Illinois. The Illinois Gaming Board sent a cease-and-desist letter in February 2025, and the company moved Illinois players to Arena. A March 18, 2025 release from the Attorney General said PrizePicks "has agreed to cease offering single-player contests in Illinois" while lawmakers consider regulating fantasy sports.

  • California. Attorney General Opinion No. 23-1001 of July 3, 2025 concluded that pick'em and draft-style daily fantasy contests are sports wagering barred by Penal Code section 337a. The opinion is advisory, not a statute or court ruling, and it did not address season-long fantasy.

Results

The money arrived during these disputes, not after them. Allwyn's September 2025 deck gave revenue growth of more than 60% year on year without stating the base or period, and adjusted EBITDA of $339 million for the 12 months to June 2025. Its FY 2025 release, published later, shows net revenue up 39% at constant currency (34% reported) to €868 million, and 24% in the fourth quarter. The two growth figures are not directly comparable. The EBITDA margin widened from 31.4% to 37.0%.

The deal closed in January 2026, and Allwyn consolidates PrizePicks from January 16. Allwyn paid $1,504 million at closing, and drew $1,554 million of new loans for the deal and its costs. Sellers can earn up to $1.0 billion more in 2029. The earnout starts to accrue only if average adjusted EBITDA for 2026-28 is about 40% above the June 2025 base, an average of roughly $475 million. The full amount needs more than 2.2 times that base, about $735 million. In August 2026 Allwyn said it was integrating prediction markets alongside DFS, combining a player pick and a team pick in one line-up.

What did not work

  • The against-the-house format drew enforcement. Regulators in New York, Florida and Illinois objected to contests that resembled prop bets against the operator. The fixes were an exit, a licence or, in the end, dropping the format nationwide in August 2025; New York cost close to $15 million.

  • Results swing with sports outcomes. Growth slowed in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 24% at constant currency, or 16% reported, in a quarter Allwyn said had "customer-friendly sports results". The quarter's EBITDA margin was 30.0%, against 37.0% for the year.

  • Copycats arrived. Allwyn lists Underdog, Sleeper, Betr, Chalkboard and Dabble, and notes that DraftKings and FanDuel launched similar standalone games.

  • Advisory opinions still bite. California's opinion carries no statutory force, yet it put the largest US state in question for every fantasy operator. The sweepstakes casino bans case shows the same pattern of states moving against a whole model.

Takeaways for affiliates

  • Treat product classification as revenue risk. Between September 2023 and July 2025, regulators in New York, Florida and Illinois acted against the company's against-the-house contests, and California's attorney general opined that all daily fantasy is sports wagering. Spread traffic across states and products so one letter cannot cut most of your income.

  • Match copy to the live product in each state. Since August 2025 paid contests are peer-to-peer, free-to-play and prediction markets are separate products, and availability varies by state. Check what a partner offers where your traffic lands, and describe contests, not bets, where that is the legal product.

  • Owned community is an acquisition asset. A 615,000-member Discord did work paid media would otherwise do. An owned channel survives ad-policy and search changes.

  • Do not fight the brand for its own name. Company pages lead the "prizepicks" results. Affiliates earn on comparison, legality and context content, not branded navigational terms.

  • Read the change-of-control clauses. PrizePicks now sits inside a leveraged group with an EBITDA-linked earnout. Check what your contract says after a sale.

  • Price outcome volatility into deals. When players win more, the operator's revenue drops, and on revenue share that flows straight to you; our guide to CPA vs RevShare vs hybrid covers the trade-off.

FAQ

Who owns PrizePicks?

Allwyn, the Swiss-headquartered lottery and gaming group, owns about 62.3% after closing the deal in January 2026. The co-founders and management team kept most of their stakes, and PrizePicks runs as a standalone brand.

It depends on the state and the product. PrizePicks says it is licensed where states require it. California's attorney general issued an advisory opinion against daily fantasy on July 3, 2025, and in Florida the company returned with peer-to-peer Arena contests in April 2024. See our legality guide.

How does PrizePicks work?

Players choose two to six athlete stats and predict whether each finishes above or below a posted projection, for an entry fee or for free. Paid contests are now peer-to-peer, so payouts depend on how a player's picks rank against other players.

Is PrizePicks a sportsbook or a prediction market?

It began as a fantasy contest operator. Since November 2025 it has also offered prediction markets in the app, which Allwyn says followed PrizePicks' registration with the National Futures Association, with the first contracts reported to run through Kalshi. Whether state gaming law applies to those contracts is contested; see our guide to how prediction markets work.

Sources

Last verified 30 October 2026.

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