The Fairest Sportsbooks Poll Tracked the Biggest Brands

A FairPlay Sports Media poll of about 1,000 bettors named bet365, DraftKings and FanDuel the fairest sportsbooks they already used. The same UK sample said 54% had been treated unfairly, and both markets treated a fair book as one with better prices and cleaner payouts.

Group CEO Stuart Simms said before the numbers landed that he expected market leaders to win. They did. The vote was taken only among accounts respondents already held.

A Poll of Books Bettors Already Used

FairPlay Sports Media published the inaugural FairPlay Fair Betting Survey on March 15, 2024, after remote fieldwork from January 5, 2024, to February 6, 2024. About 500 legal-age bettors in the United Kingdom and about 500 in US states with legal online sports betting answered it.

The ranking question was narrow. Respondents were asked, of the sportsbooks they had accounts with, who is the fairest. Unknown brands never got a look. Challenger books with thin account bases were boxed out before the first percentage was counted.

WHO BETTORS NAMED FAIREST

The US table stops at two names because FairPlay said DraftKings and FanDuel were comfortably clear of the rest and did not publish a third-place share. In the UK, Flutter Entertainment’s Sky Bet and Paddy Power split 16% and 12%, while bet365 took 40% as a single brand.

That is a brand-concentration result as much as a character result. Simms later put the hunch on the record.

It’s a hunch we had before the survey that those brands who were deemed ‘fairest’ might also be the leaders in their respective markets, and I’d like to commend the likes of bet365, FanDuel and DraftKings on performing well in this regard.

Stuart Simms, Group CEO, FairPlay Sports Media

What Bettors Meant by a Fair Sportsbook

UK bettors pointed to best odds, Best Odds Guaranteed, and an easy site or app. US bettors pointed to best odds and easy withdrawals. Fairness in this sample was a price-and-payout test, not a safer-gambling scorecard, and bet365, DraftKings and FanDuel were marked well on those items in their home markets.

WHAT COUNTED AS FAIR

• UK price: Best odds sat at the top of the fairness list for British respondents.
• UK racing extra: Best Odds Guaranteed, a same-day starting-price uplift, ranked with price and ease of use.
• UK product: An easy site or app was named as a fairness factor, not a nice-to-have.
• US price: Best odds again led the American list.
• US cashout: Easy withdrawals were the other fairness test US bettors put first.

Best Odds Guaranteed is a racing settlement rule, not a moral grade. On bet365 it is Best Odds Guaranteed on UK and Irish racing and greyhounds: take a price from 8 a.m. UK time on race day, and if the starting price is bigger, the winning bet is paid at the bigger odds. Sky Bet’s version is narrower. The Sky Bet Club Best Odds Guaranteed terms require a prior-week Club qualify, including £30 of bets by Sunday, and the offer runs from 9 a.m.

FairPlay said UK written answers clustered around honour and respect, with a sense that the book-customer relationship is not a level field. US answers leaned on being treated like other customers, plus better prices and more transparency. The ranking still went to the largest, most familiar apps.

54 Percent of UK Bettors Reported Unfair Treatment

Fairness mattered in both samples. It did not follow that people felt they had received it. Eighty-seven percent of UK respondents called fair treatment very important when they pick a sportsbook, and 78% of US respondents said the same. The lived record split hard by market.

UNFAIR TREATMENT, UK VS US

• UK importance: 87% said being treated fairly was very important when choosing a book.
• UK harm: 54% said they had been treated unfairly by an operator at some point.
• UK churn: Half of that unfair-treatment group said they would stop using a book because of it.
• US gap: 16% of US respondents reported unfair treatment, against 78% who called fairness very important.

FairPlay said the US-UK gap might reflect market maturity or a higher US standard of customer service, and that it needed more research. Simms argued the UK could still take customer-service lessons from the United States if it wanted more lifetime value and less churn. The poll does not identify which UK brands produced the 54% figure, so bet365’s 40% fairness share and the unfair-treatment share can sit in the same sample without naming a culprit.

He also said it was fascinating to see how fairness fits into the bettor’s psyche, and that being treated fairly is extremely important for a strong bookmaker-customer relationship. The UK numbers put a price on that line. Half of the people who said they had been treated unfairly were ready to walk.

FairPlay Sports Media Rebranded During the Fieldwork

The company that scored the industry on fair play had just named itself for it. Oddschecker Global Media rebranded to FairPlay Sports Media on January 25, 2024, twenty days after this survey went into the field. Oddschecker, WhoScored and SuperScommesse stayed as consumer brands. The group name is the fairness pitch.

FROM ODDSCHECKER TO A FAIRNESS POLL

1. 1999: Oddschecker launches as an odds comparison site built around getting better value on bets.
2. 2007: Sky Betting & Gaming buys Oddschecker, folding the comparison brand into an operator group.
3. 2021: Bruin Capital buys Oddschecker Global Media for £155 million, ending 15 years inside operator ownership, most recently Flutter Entertainment.
4. 2022: Stuart Simms joins as chief executive, after XLMedia and earlier commerce roles.
5. January 5, 2024: Fieldwork opens on the FairPlay Fair Betting Survey.
6. January 25, 2024: The group publicly becomes FairPlay Sports Media.
7. February 6, 2024: Fieldwork closes.
8. March 15, 2024: The fairness rankings are released in London.

FPSM is an affiliate, data and sports-media group. It sells traffic, odds, tools and audiences to the same operator class it asked customers to grade. Simms said the new name was meant to help customers compete on price, payouts and bonuses while delivering more value to partners. A survey that finds the largest partners look fairest, on tests those partners already advertise, fits that commercial brief.

No later FairPlay Fair Betting Survey under that title appeared after the 2024 edition. The snapshot stayed frozen as handle, taxes and product fights moved on.

Handle Share in 2026 Still Follows the 2024 Vote

The US ranking did not need a secret ballot to look like the market. DraftKings took 37% of the fairness vote and FanDuel 33% in early 2024, a 70% share for the two books that already dominated legal US handle. State regulator reports for the first quarter of 2026 still had those names in that order: DraftKings at 35% of trackable handle, FanDuel at 32%, a 3 point lead.

Fanatics sat at 9% of that handle and BetMGM at 8%. Bet365, fairest in Britain, was at 4% of US trackable handle, and at 7% in the 11 of 15 trackable states where it took bets, one point behind Caesars. The 2024 poll never published a US third place, so there is no fairness share to set against those names. The top of the table is the part that maps.

DraftKings later told investors it had spent $6 billion on sales and marketing since 2018, and it put brand awareness at 88%, with a 38% preferred-brand score against 31% for FanDuel. Those are 2026 familiarity numbers, not 2024 fairness grades. They show how much oxygen the two brands hold when a customer is asked to name a book they already use.

The UK vote is a single-brand landslide rather than a two-horse photo. Bet365’s 40% sits well clear of Sky Bet and Paddy Power. Flutter can still be the larger UK group while its brands split the fairness mentions. The survey does not publish a 2024 UK handle table, so the British result should not be dressed as a share-of-wallet chart. It is a share-of-voice chart among account holders, and the loudest name won.

The Complaint Files Still Start With Withdrawals

US respondents put easy withdrawals on the fairness shortlist in 2024. UK files kept pointing at the same pipe. The Gambling Commission’s Contact Centre still files more licensee complaints about cashout and money movement than about any other product issue it tracks, and withdrawals still lead licensee complaints in the published series.

UK GAMBLING COMMISSION CONTACT CENTRE, 2025

Withdrawal complaints fell from 2,416 in 2022 to 1,791 in 2025, and they were still the largest licensee-issue pile. From April to June 2026 the Contact Centre logged 421 withdrawal and financial-transaction complaints out of 1,898 total contacts that quarter. The Commission notes that most customers complain to the operator first, so these figures are a slice, not the industry’s full grievance book.

That slice still matches what US bettors in the FairPlay sample used as a fairness test. Price gets the speech. Getting paid is the part that ends up in a regulator queue.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did FairPlay Sports Media Run a Second Fairness Survey?

No later FairPlay Fair Betting Survey under that name was published after the January 5, 2024, to February 6, 2024 fieldwork. The March 15, 2024 release remains the only edition of that poll, even as the group kept issuing other commercial products under the FairPlay and Oddschecker brands.

How Does Best Odds Guaranteed Differ at bet365 and Sky Bet?

On bet365 the offer covers qualifying UK and Irish horse racing and greyhound bets placed from 8 a.m. UK time on race day, and a receipt line shows when it has been applied; ante-post and tote bets are out. Sky Bet restricts the same starting-price uplift to Club qualifiers who staked £30 in the previous week, starts it at 9 a.m., and excludes international racing, ante-post, tote, extra-place races and price boosts unless it says otherwise.

Who Owns FairPlay Sports Media?

Bruin Capital has owned the group since 2021, when it bought Oddschecker Global Media for £155 million. Flutter Entertainment was the previous owner. Oddschecker itself launched in 1999 and was bought by Sky Betting & Gaming in 2007, which is why the comparison brand spent years inside an operator before the buyout that Simms later described as independence from sports betting partners.

Do UK Withdrawal Complaints Capture Every Dispute?

No. The Gambling Commission says customers are more likely to complain to the licensee first, and its Contact Centre series is only an indicator of what reaches the regulator. Licensed books must still offer free alternative dispute resolution if a betting-transaction complaint is unresolved after eight weeks, which is a separate queue from the 1,791 withdrawal contacts logged in 2025.

The 2024 sample never audited complaint files, settlement code or affordability checks. It asked account holders who already sat inside the big apps which of those apps felt fairest, and they answered with price, buttons and payout speed. Two years on, the same two US names still take most of the handle, and UK complaint clerks still open the withdrawals tab first.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of a completed consumer survey, company statements and regulator complaint totals. It is informational only and is not betting advice, an endorsement of any sportsbook, or a finding that any operator treats customers fairly or unfairly in a legal sense. Readers who want to open, close or dispute a betting account should read that operator’s own terms and, where needed, speak with a licensed gambling counsellor or use the operator’s complaints process and an approved alternative dispute resolution body. Figures and rankings reflect the FairPlay Sports Media survey of January and February 2024 and the other dated sources named above, and later polls, handle reports or complaint counts can change those numbers.