FanDuel Play with a Plan and the future of responsible gaming

FanDuel Play with a Plan RG programme is not being pitched as a box-ticking compliance add-on, it is being positioned as a core product feature across FanDuel’s sportsbook, racing, and casino experience. That framing matters, because it reflects a wider industry recalibration in regulated markets, where consumer protection is increasingly expected to be built into the user journey rather than bolted on at the end.

FanDuel’s new campaign, titled Play with a Plan, is designed to encourage customers to make informed and deliberate decisions about betting activity. The company is leaning into proactive self-management, with messaging that avoids being restrictive or punitive, and instead aims to normalise planning and self-assessment as everyday habits for all users, not just people seen as high risk.

This is also a marketing story, not just a product one. FanDuel is putting responsible gaming on the same visibility plane as major promotions, using television, programmatic advertising, social media, and audio. In other words, the operator is treating responsible play like a platform pillar with brand value, not just a regulatory requirement.

Why Play with a Plan is more than a campaign

FanDuel explicitly frames Play with a Plan as a core feature across products rather than a standalone compliance measure. That distinction speaks to a broader industry shift, where the user experience itself is becoming the delivery mechanism for consumer protection tools.

In practical terms, the initiative aims to make tools feel approachable and useful, rather than something a customer only discovers after a negative experience. That also aligns with FanDuel’s stated goal to connect responsible play with everyday safety habits rather than crisis intervention.

From an industry analyst perspective, this approach addresses two persistent friction points in regulated iGaming. First, many players assume tools are only for “problem gamblers,” which creates stigma and lowers adoption. Second, operators often bury tools deep in menus, which reduces real-world usage and impact.

The data point that stands out, RG tools are being used more

FanDuel says its existing responsible gaming framework recorded a 41% year-over-year increase in tool usage last year. The company also states this represents the highest participation rate it has reported for its responsible gaming resources.

Those numbers are notable for two reasons. They suggest that usage is not static, and they support the argument that when tools are made easier to find and easier to understand, customers will actually engage with them. For an industry that often struggles to demonstrate meaningful outcomes, an internal usage lift is at least a directional signal that integrated design can drive adoption.

Product design as consumer protection

At the center of Play with a Plan is a suite of tools that present behavioral data in a more accessible and introspective format. This is important because consumer protection in betting is often a data problem as much as it is a behavioral one, people cannot manage what they cannot clearly see.

Key tools highlighted by FanDuel include the following.

• My Spend, a dashboard introduced in 2024 that lets customers review deposits and betting activity over weekly, monthly, and three-month periods,
• loss limits and deposit alerts, which allow users to define spending thresholds and receive automated notifications.

While these may sound like standard responsible gaming mechanics, the strategic shift is in how they are packaged and promoted. FanDuel is trying to make planning feel like the default behavior, which is a meaningful change from the traditional model where tools sit in the background and only become visible in moments of distress.

Real-Time Check-In and the move toward in-session guidance

A particularly salient feature in FanDuel’s responsible gaming toolkit is Real-Time Check-In, introduced last year. It uses machine learning and deposit data to provide immediate feedback and guidance across sportsbook, racing, and casino products.

This is a notable evolution because it shifts RG from passive tools, like setting a limit once, to more dynamic interactions that can occur closer to decision moments. In a regulated environment where operators are expected to balance growth with meaningful consumer protections, guidance that happens in real time can become a crucial design layer.

It also signals how operators are increasingly using analytics for player support, not just for engagement and retention. The details FanDuel shares focus on machine learning paired with deposit data, and the practical outcome is immediate feedback rather than post-hoc summaries.

Marketing responsible gaming like a product launch

One of the most telling aspects of Play with a Plan is how it is being marketed. FanDuel is deploying a multi-channel strategy spanning television, programmatic advertising, social media, and audio platforms. The company has said responsible gaming is being treated as a foundational platform feature, warranting the same level of visibility and investment as product launches or major sporting promotions.

That approach matters because awareness is often the missing ingredient in RG adoption. A limit-setting tool cannot help a customer who does not know it exists, or who assumes it is not meant for them. By pushing RG into mainstream ad inventory, FanDuel is also attempting to reshape what the brand stands for in a crowded market.

In brand terms, this style of campaign tries to replace a reactive narrative, where responsible gaming is only discussed when something goes wrong, with a proactive narrative that frames planning as normal.

Flutter’s Positive Impact Plan and the investment context

FanDuel also links Play with a Plan to Flutter’s broader corporate strategy through the Positive Impact Plan, which contributed $100m investment in responsible gaming initiatives. While the article does not break down allocation, the inclusion of a headline investment figure anchors the campaign in a wider corporate commitment rather than a single brand-level initiative.

For the market, this is a reminder that responsible gaming is increasingly an investment category. Operators are funding technology, product development, marketing, and educational programming to meet rising expectations in regulated markets, from policymakers, consumers, and partners.

Reducing stigma and making RG a community conversation

Play with a Plan is not limited to in-app tools. FanDuel is expanding educational and community-focused efforts through media and partnerships, including advisory input from Keith Whyte, original programming on FanDuel TV, and storytelling initiatives designed to reduce stigma around gambling-related harm.

That emphasis on stigma is worth highlighting. In many markets, the biggest barrier to early self-management is not a lack of tools, it is a lack of comfort using them. If customers think tools are only for people in crisis, they wait too long to engage. FanDuel’s positioning, that planning applies regardless of betting frequency or spend, is designed to counter that pattern.

What the sweepstakes-style campaigns suggest about engagement

FanDuel states that sweepstakes-style responsible gaming campaigns conducted with major league partners attracted more than 550,000 participants in 2025. The operator also says internal data showed sustained engagement with tools such as My Spend following participation.

Those two statements hint at a pragmatic reality, education often needs an on-ramp. Sweepstakes-style campaigns can function as a low-friction entry point, creating a reason to engage with RG content without requiring a customer to self-identify as struggling. If participation then leads to sustained use of tools like My Spend, it supports the idea that awareness campaigns can have durable effects when paired with accessible product design.

What this means for the wider iGaming market

FanDuel’s Play with a Plan lands in a period where the industry is trying to demonstrate that growth and consumer protection can coexist in regulated markets. The campaign reflects three broader directions that are becoming harder to ignore.

• Responsible gaming as user experience, with tools integrated into everyday journeys rather than hidden behind compliance pages,
• data-driven guidance, where machine learning and real-time signals shape feedback closer to decision moments,
• brand-level visibility, where RG is marketed across mainstream channels with the same seriousness as core product messaging.

None of this eliminates controversy in the online betting sector, or the tension between entertainment and risk. But it does show an operator attempting to evolve the playbook, moving from a defensive posture to a more active model that treats planning as a normal part of play.

By positioning responsible gaming as a platform feature rather than a compliance afterthought, FanDuel is effectively arguing that consumer protection belongs in the core product experience.

The strategic takeaway for operators, regulators, and players

For operators, Play with a Plan is a case study in how to align product, marketing, and corporate investment around responsible gaming. The 41% year-over-year increase in tool usage that FanDuel reports provides a useful internal benchmark for what adoption can look like when tools are actively promoted and designed for clarity.

For regulators and stakeholders, the emphasis on integrated tools, machine learning-driven feedback, and mass-market awareness campaigns provides a clearer view of what “meaningful consumer protections” can look like in practice, not as abstract policy language but as observable features and campaigns.

For customers, the message is straightforward. Planning is being framed as the default. Features like My Spend, deposit alerts, loss limits, and Real-Time Check-In are meant to make betting behavior easier to track and manage, without requiring a crisis moment to trigger action.

Where FanDuel goes from here

FanDuel has set expectations that responsible gaming will be treated with the same visibility and investment as major product initiatives. If that promise holds, the next measure of impact will be whether awareness efforts continue to translate into sustained usage, and whether tools like Real-Time Check-In can meaningfully guide behavior across sportsbook, racing, and casino play.

In a fast-maturing US market, where public scrutiny and regulatory attention remain constants, the operators that win long term are likely to be those that can prove they have built a safer entertainment product, not just a popular one. Play with a Plan is FanDuel’s latest attempt to put that proof, and that narrative, front and center.