Q2 2026 Update: 20%+ of US Consumers Are Sports Betting

Sorry to put a damper on your World Cup watching…

While I have been having an incredible time watching Shakira dance during the halftime show, I’m definitely not happy about the fact that FanDuel is getting people into more debt.

According to a poll by Siena University, 22% of Americans, and 50% of adult men, engage in sports betting. Even worse, over 30% of those are betting at least $100/mo according to a poll by YouGov. On top of average revolving credit card debt of $6.5k and average student loan debt of $39k, I’m not entirely sure how a median college graduate income of $80k/year ($4,500/mo) is going about saving, especially if they have kids. This should be an entirely livable salary, and yet more and more people are becoming attracted to get-rich-quick dopamine hits.

A few things to think about:

1. Teaching people to have responsibility and willpower is clearly not a catch-all, how are you giving people a better alternative?

2. This is changing member risk profiles - how are you adjusting your underwriting keeping the rise in gambling in mind? We are creating moments that mirror these experiences and give our users a better outlet.

   

What’s New? 👀

🚀 We crossed 450k lifetime users, with 40-50k sign ups per month!

• We have grown tremendously over the last year, and we’re well on our path to 1m!

⭐️ Gold Stars Galore

• Prepare for non-monetary rewards in Debbie, like Gold Stars (XP). People just want to be recognized for the effort they put in. Remember getting a gold star for doing your chores as a kid? Adults want that too. We’re not selling users a couple bucks a month, we’re selling a way to feel recognized. Whimsy and emotional connection in finance, positive reinforcement over punishment.

👋 “Money Moves” launch

• Partners have been asking us for just-in-time content, paired with targeted, relevant offers. Imagine learning about ways to improve your credit, understanding the different types of credit building tools out there, and then being shown an offer for a credit builder loan. Now we can do this outside of our Pathway feature and launch it to any segment or user, at any time.

📍 Events We’ll Be At

As always, here are some conferences we’re attending coming up. Let me know if you’ll be there so I can say hello!

• Affiliate Summit East (7/27-7/28)

  • This is our first year attending, and will open up the broader world of affiliate marketing for anyone dipping their toe in

• Reseda Summit (9/15-9/17)

  • Reseda has continued to be a great partner in our CU journey, and we’re excited to present.

• Free Toaster’s Affiliate Market Summit for Lenders and Publishers (09/23)

  • This is a brand new one, and we’re excited to see what they have in store

🚀 Our Roadmap

Re-launching lending marketplace, starting with debt refinance/Union Credit

• Earlier this year lending started to open up with rates coming down (a bit). We see this is the opportunity for us to start dipping our toe back into our lending marketplace, albeit with cautious optimism given the new Fed chair.

• Our first partner here is Union Credit, and we’re excited to be adding more partners to expand our loan marketplace

Launching a custom rewards orchestrator that puts our partners in control

• Partners are always looking for more ways to rewards their members, and we want to give them the flexibility to do it. Our orchestrator will allow any approved FI or merchant to run limited time campaigns targeted at Debbie users with any parameter - for example, running a campaign to anyone with less than $50 in deposits to reward them for saving $20/mo for the next 3 months.

• As we continue to grow the platform organically, more and more of your members will likely find Debbie, making us a high-intent channel for you to advertise to both new and existing accountholders outside of old-school email, Meta, Google, etc.

As always, if you’re interested in joining Debbie’s Preferred Partner Growth Network, reply to this email with the keyword “Growth”.

Debbie Nachas Wall

nach·es. noun: nachas
Nachas is a Yiddish word meaning that you are happy and proud, especially of someone’s accomplishments.

Scott knows what’s up…

Users sharing their modules in stories…

This user is FINALLY debt free