In its fourth quarter earnings letter to shareholders, the parent company of FanDuel made clear that it plans to step up spending on its new prediction markets product this year. The company said: “We believe this new product enables us to harness a significant and incremental expansion of the US addressable market ahead of further state regulation – a space where our scale and experience give us a natural advantage It expects an increase in prediction markets investment with adjusted EBITDA loss expected to be toward the top of previously guided range of $200 million to $300 million. In other words, profits will take a near-term hit as Flutter builds out the business.

Management framed that spending as deliberate. The company is positioning prediction markets as a long range growth driver, not a side experiment, and appears willing to absorb short term dilution to establish a foothold.

Why Flutter sees upside with prediction markets, not erosion

One of the biggest concerns hanging over the sector is whether prediction markets will siphon activity away from traditional online sportsbooks. If customers shift dollars from sports betting into event contracts, the net effect could be less exciting than the headline growth suggests.

Flutter chief executive Peter Jackson sought to tamp down that narrative. “We have not identified any evidence of any meaningful impact,” he said, referring to fears that prediction markets are eating into FanDuel’s sportsbook business.

“We undertook a comprehensive review of potential cannibalization from prediction markets and we have not identified any evidence of any meaningful impact.” — Peter Jackson, Flutter CEO.

4Q25 Earnings Releasehttps://t.co/ylsgOyuLvV pic.twitter.com/0SvY0crzJ0

— Alfonso Straffon (@astraffon) February 26, 2026

The company pointed to an internal review to back that up. According to Flutter, the analysis drew on industry channel checks, third-party data analysis of deposits, actives, and app download trends, and detailed analysis of FanDuel customer trends, and found that any handle effect likely sits in “the low single digits percentage points.” It also stressed that prediction markets have “not been a significant driver of the moderating customer and handle trends we have observed.”

Flutter is also drawing attention to performance in newly opened states to support its case that demand remains strong. In Missouri, for example, user growth outpaced what executives had modeled. The company said acquisitions there “were well ahead of expectations, reaching 5% of the population within the first 30 days, making Missouri one of our best state launches to date.”

Taken together, Flutter argues that prediction markets are not hollowing out its sportsbook, instead describing them as “a significant incremental growth opportunity,” and goes a step further by suggesting that “the emergence of prediction markets will accelerate the path to state regulation of online sports betting and iGaming.”

Inside the FanDuel Predicts rollout

FanDuel has already rolled out FanDuel Predicts, a standalone app built in partnership with CME Group, one of the largest derivatives exchanges in the world.

The app began its launch in late 2025 and has been expanding across the country in phases. Users can trade contracts tied to sports outcomes, as well as take positions linked to major financial benchmarks such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100, commodities including oil and gold, and macroeconomic indicators like CPI and GDP.

Our Q4 and Full Year 2025 Earnings reflect the strength of our global portfolio and the advantages of the Flutter Edge.

2025 highlights:

• 15.9M AMPs, up 14% YoY
• $16.4B revenue, increasing 17% YoY
• $2.8B Adjusted EBITDA, up +21% YoY
• @FanDuel #1 in US OSB and iGaming… pic.twitter.com/z2ScTt4wFu

— Flutter Entertainment (@FlutterEnt) February 26, 2026

Flutter says early usage patterns are lining up with expectations. “The vast majority of the activity focused on sports, and average volume per customer [is] in line with expectations,” the company told investors.

Executives see major sporting events as natural catalysts for further adoption. Development plans are geared toward the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the start of the 2026/27 NFL season, two tentpole moments that could bring new users into the product.

Rival DraftKings is also working with CME on its own prediction markets offering. The parallel moves reiterate how seriously the leading US operators are taking this category. What started as a niche corner of the market now looks like an emerging competitive front.

Flutter’s general thesis rests on expansion rather than substitution. The company describes prediction markets as “TAM expansive” or “Total Addressable Market expansive,” arguing that they open the door to customers who cannot legally access traditional online sportsbooks. Roughly 40 % of the US population lives in states without regulated online sports betting, and Flutter believes event contracts could reach some of those consumers. It also sees potential to attract new sports and entertainment-first customers who may not have engaged with a sportsbook before.

Beyond distribution, Flutter thinks it has an operational edge. The company says it is “uniquely positioned to price complex, correlated markets in real time,” and has signaled interest in using its proprietary models to provide market making services, which would extend its expertise in odds setting into a new but related arena.

Flutter Entertainment’s financial pressures and the 2026 roadmap

The prediction markets push is unfolding against a more complicated financial backdrop.

Bank of America analysts recently downgraded both DraftKings and Flutter, citing prediction markets among several headwinds. The bank lowered Flutter’s price target from $325 to $250, arguing that even if cannibalization remains limited, the added competition and margin volatility could weigh on the sector.

At the same time, operators are contending with shifting tax regimes and uneven sportsbook margins in key states. This has made investors more sensitive to any new initiative that requires heavy upfront spending.

Flutter has also been reshaping parts of its organization. Around 250 roles are being eliminated in Leeds in the UK as the company consolidates technology platforms and adjusts to regulatory and cost pressures in Europe. Earlier quarterly results showed revenue growth but also included a sizable net loss in the third quarter of 2025, driven in part by impairments and market access costs.

Against that backdrop, management is asking shareholders to focus on the long game. For 2026, the company signaled that guidance assumes adjusted EBITDA investment near the top of the previously outlined $200 million to $300 million range. It also indicated that customer engagement from prediction markets is likely to skew toward the back half of the year.

The message from the top is: “Our priority is to build value for the future, while also maintaining the flexibility to accelerate investment. We believe this will position FanDuel to deliver future growth and harness the long-term opportunities for our business.” For now, Flutter is betting that patience will pay off.

Featured image: Flutter Entertainment

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By examining competitors’ digital footprints, businesses can find content gaps, SEO flaws, paid ad tactics, and audience engagement methods that are effective. These insights can lead to smarter, more agile marketing decisions and provide a competitive advantage in crowded markets.

Uncover Hidden Opportunities with a Competitor Analysis Tool

A powerful competitor analysis tool doesn’t just show what others are doing—it reveals how you can do it better. These tools often offer features such as keyword tracking, backlink audits, content performance analysis, and social listening.

A New Tool to Solve Old Problems

While the actual competitor analysis tool is new, bringing technological innovation to the forefront and allowing it to work to better big businesses, the idea behind it is decidedly not. For as long as there have been human beings on this planet, there has been competition. Perhaps the most important thing to remember about competition on an institutional level is that no one participating in a competition’s contributions exists in isolation. In other words, to look back on the history of a given company and truly understand why they chose to take the various routes they did over a period of time, you must also understand how their competitors and the market at large were moving during that same period.

A succinct encapsulation of this is the way in which horror films evolved over the course of the ‘70s and early ‘80s, giving rise to the immensely popular slasher subgenre. While horror had been an incredibly popular, artistically viable, and financially profitable genre since the literal dawn of cinema, a new iteration of the genre came into existence during this period of time. Early forebearers to it were being released as far back as 1960, with films like Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom, but the real innovation came in the mid-’70s, with the release of films like Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Bob Clark’s Black Christmas.

An Ecosystem of Influence

These films featured the now recognizable structure, formula, and tropes of the slasher subgenre, with a mysterious masked killer on the loose and a group of innocent victims being picked off one by one. In the years that followed, they would come to inspire other filmmakers, with entries like John Carpenter’s Halloween or Sean S. Cunningham’s Friday the 13th. Each of these films was in competition with the others, actively attempting to outdo them and give audiences an even better, scarier iteration of the story.

To look at any one of these films in isolation is to not see the forest for the trees; the existence of a film like Friday the 13th is directly tied to the existence of a film like Black Christmas, and to not consider the ways in which this competition ultimately cultivated the environment that inspired these films to be made at all is to miss a significant chunk of the actual reasoning behind it all. To this end, a competitor analysis tool is a new-fangled tool that provides much greater insights into the inner workings and mechanics of your peers, but it scratches an itch that has long existed in everything from big business to media and beyond.

Key Features to Look for in a Competitor Analysis Tool

Not all tools are created equal. High-performing competitor analysis platforms typically include:

• Real-time keyword monitoring
• SEO performance benchmarks
• Paid ad tracking (Google Ads, Meta, etc.)
• Social media sentiment insights
• Competitor content audit

Choosing a tool with these capabilities can provide a 360° view of your market landscape and equip you in a much more effective way to take on your own competitors. It has long been true that failure is one of the greatest teachers in business; a given company will learn far more from failure than it will from success. But with the right competitor analysis tool by your side, your business doesn’t have to fail in order to learn; it can learn from the failures of other businesses as well.

By affording you unique insight into the successes and failures of your competitors, each business becomes the equivalent of a guinea pig to you, as you watch the various ways in which they falter and incorporate those lessons into your own plans.

Strategic Benefits for Teams

Whether you’re in SEO, content marketing, or product development, competitor analysis helps make smarter decisions. You can streamline content calendars using proven formats, identify seasonal trends early, or even adjust products based on market gaps.

In a digital-first world, understanding your competition is the key to standing out. Investing in a high-functioning competitor analysis tool can give businesses the insights they need to outmaneuver rivals and boost growth.

Image by Yvette W; Pixabay

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Panera, one of many fast-casual restaurants contending with a challenging landscape, announced its transformation strategy on Tuesday, dubbed “Panera RISE,” which is focused on refreshing the menu, boosting its value proposition and customer experience by enhancing the look of its restaurants and expanding its network.

The company aims to use this strategy to help it reach more than $7 billion in systemwide sales by 2028, up from the $6 billion it currently brings in annually. In 2023, U.S. sales peaked at $6.5 billion, but its units and sales haven’t substantially increased since, according to reports citing data from Technomic.

“As we transform our business, we are investing in four strategic pillars that put the guest at the very center of everything we do,” Panera Bread CEO Paul Carbone said, adding that the company has already “made considerable progress in strengthening” its foundation. 

The company aims to use its strategy to help it reach more than $7 billion in systemwide sales by 2028, up from the $6 billion it currently brings in annually. Stan Reese – stock.adobe.com

The fast-casual chain specializing in salads, sandwiches and baked goods, had 2,239 bakery-cafes, company-owned and franchise locations across North America. Part of the turnaround includes building new locations and “modernizing” its current portfolio of restaurants “to ensure consistent operational excellence across franchise and Panera company bakery-cafes,” the company said. Panera didn’t disclose where the new locations would open or what they would look like.

The company said its plan also includes elevating the company’s food served throughout the day to “incorporate abundant, flavorful and distinctive, high-quality ingredients.” It also aims to enhance its bakery and beverage options. Panera will also promise to have a “variety of price points” so its menu remains affordable.

The company will also deploy more staffing into front-of-house service to enhance the experience for guests.

In 2023, U.S. sales peaked at $6.5 billion, but its units and sales haven’t substantially increased since. Jammer Gene – stock.adobe.com

Panera is the latest company to initiate a major turnaround as the industry contends with supply-chain disruptions and rising labor costs coupled with subdued traffic. Starbucks chief Brian Niccol announced a “Back to Starbucks” turnaround program shortly after taking the reins in 2024. The program is focused on driving traffic through operational improvements, store portfolio optimization and innovation.

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Earlier this year, TGI Fridays CEO Ray Blanchette told FOX Business that it was revamping its menu as part of its comeback from bankruptcy.

Similarly, Hooters is also trying to make a return after emerging from bankruptcy this year. Its new owners are updating its menu and changing the image that once defined the restaurant chain.

Meanwhile, Dine Brands Global CEO John Peyton told FOX Business that the company is working to boost sales by strategically combining its morning-focused brand, IHOP, with its evening-centric one, Applebee’s. The goal is to create a dual-branded model that allows it to capture and serve customers throughout every daypart – breakfast, lunch, dinner and late night – in a way that, as Peyton puts it, “no other restaurant company can.”

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When a small Chinese company called DeepSeek revealed that it had created an A.I. system that could match leading A.I. products made in the United States, the news was greeted in many circles as a warning that China was closing the gap in the global race to build artificial intelligence.

DeepSeek also said it built its new A.I. technology more cost effectively and with fewer hard-to-get computers chips than its American competitors, shocking an industry that had come to believe that bigger and better A.I. would cost billions and billions of dollars.

But A.I. experts inside the tech giant Meta saw DeepSeek’s breakthrough as something more than the arrival of a nimble, new competitor from the other side of the world: It was vindication that an unconventional decision Meta made nearly two years ago was the right call.

In 2023, Meta, in a widely criticized move, gave away its cutting-edge A.I. technology after spending millions to build it. DeepSeek used parts of that technology as well as other A.I. tools freely available on the internet through a software development method called open source.

Meta executives believe DeepSeek’s breakthrough shows that upstarts now have a chance to innovate and compete with the tech giants that have mostly had the A.I. playing field to themselves because A.I. costs so much to build. It was something Meta executives hoped would happen when they gave away their own technology.

“Our open source strategy was validated,” said Ragavan Srinivasan, a Meta vice president, in an interview on Tuesday. “The more people who have access to the technology needed to move things forward faster, the better.”

Meta is also taking a close look at the work done at DeepSeek. Following Meta’s lead, the Chinese company released its technology to the open source tech community as well. Meta has created several “war rooms” where employees are reverse engineering DeepSeek’s technology, according to two people familiar with the effort who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Meta employees are looking for ways to lower the cost of training its software — a term used to describe the way A.I. technologies learn from data — and apply it to Meta’s own A.I. The Information earlier reported on the war rooms.

Before Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, gave away its A.I. tech, the company had been focused on projects like virtual reality. It was caught flat-footed when OpenAI introduced the chatbot ChatGPT in late 2022. Other tech giants like Microsoft, OpenAI’s close partner, and Google were also well ahead in their A.I. efforts.

(The New York Times has sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems. The two tech companies have denied the suit’s claims.)

By freely sharing the code that drove its A.I. technology, called Llama, Meta hoped to accelerate the development of its technology and attract others to build on top of it. Meta engineers believed that A.I. experts working collaboratively could make more progress than teams of experts siloed inside companies, as they were at OpenAI and the other tech giants.

Meta could afford to do this. It made money by selling online ads, not A.I. software. By accelerating the development of the A.I. it offered to consumers for free, it could bring more attention to online services like Facebook and Instagram — and sell more ads.

“They were the only major U.S. company to take this approach. And it was easier for them to do this — more defensible,” said Chris V. Nicholson, an investor with the venture capital firm Page One Ventures, who focuses on A.I. technologies. Meta can offer A.I. below the cost to build it — or even give it away — to attract customers and increase sales of other services, he added.

Many in Silicon Valley said Meta’s move set a dangerous precedent because the chatbots could help spread disinformation, hate speech and other toxic content. But Meta said that any risks were far outweighed by the benefits of open source. And most A.I. development, they added, had been shared around through open source until ChatGPT made companies leery of showing what they were working on.

Now, if DeepSeek’s work can be replicated — particularly its claim that it was able to build its A.I. more affordably than most had thought possible — that could provide more opportunities for more companies to expand on what Meta did.

“These dynamics are invisible to the U.S. consumer,” said Mr. Nicholson. “But they are hugely important.”

Yann LeCun, an early A.I. pioneer who is Meta’s chief A.I. scientist, said in a post on LinkedIn that people who think the takeaway from DeepSeek’s work should be that China is beating the United States at A.I. development are misreading the situation. “The correct reading is: ‘Open source models are surpassing proprietary ones,’” he said.

Dr. LeCun added that “because their work is published and open source, everyone can profit from it. That is the power of open research.”

By last summer, many Chinese companies had followed Meta’s lead, regularly open sourcing their own work. Those companies included DeepSeek, which was created by a quantitative trading firm called High-Flyer.

Some Chinese companies offered “fine-tuned” versions of technology open sourced by companies from other countries, like Meta. But others, such as the start-up 01.AI, founded by a well-known investor and technologist named Kai-Fu Lee, used parts of Meta’s code to build more powerful technologies.

U.S. tech experts still argue that U.S. companies like Meta should not be open sourcing their technologies because they were fueling A.I. in China. But others say that if American companies stopped freely providing their technology, the epicenter of open source development would simply shift to China anyway.

Earlier this year, students at the University of California, Berkeley built an A.I. system that in many ways rivaled the performance of OpenAI’s latest system. They did this by building on top of two open-source technologies released by the Chinese tech giant Alibaba.

“When you are in a race to build technology, the best way to compete is to share code, strengthen the foundation and accelerate the rate of progress,” said Clément Delangue, chief executive of Hugging Face, a company that hosts many of the world’s open-source A.I. projects.

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