With the NFL and college football seasons right around the corner, you can be sure that people that love to gamble on games, and bet on fantasy football and internet gaming, are ready and set to roll. One thing is for sure. The top companies in the legalized betting world are getting ready for a huge season, and smart growth stock investors should grab some of the top stocks now.

While it was carried on across the United States every single day of the year forever, sports betting was only legal in Nevada and Delaware. After years of efforts to change the rulings that kept it illegal, that prohibition came to an end in 2018. That’s when the Supreme Court ruled in the favor of individual states in a case involving the constitutionality defined by a 1992 law, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which prohibited states other than Nevada and Delaware from operating sports betting. Currently, 32 states have approved legal sports betting and more will surely follow soon.

We screened our 24/7 Wall St. research database looking for stocks that are rated Buy that could be poised to have a huge fall football season. We found five that top firms across Wall Street are very positive on. It is still important to remember that no single analyst report should be used as a sole basis for any buying or selling decision.

Caesars Entertainment

Shares of this well-known old-school gaming company offer solid upside. Caesars Entertainment Corp. (NASDAQ: CZR) provides casino-entertainment and hospitality services, primarily under the Harrah’s, Caesars, Horseshoe and Eldorado brand names.

Its facilities include gaming offerings, food and beverage outlets, hotel and convention space, and non-gaming entertainment options. Caesars Entertainment is one of the largest gaming companies in the world and currently owns or operates 50 casino properties in 13 states and in four other countries.

Also the largest casino company in the United States, Caesars Entertainment, recently bought a minority stake in fantasy sports platform, SuperDraft. Caesars has the option to increase its stake to 100% over time at predetermined levels. SuperDraft will join the Caesars online brands, which include World Series of Poker, Caesars Online Casino and William Hill, and it will become part of Caesars’ single wallet solution that allows members more options to play games both live and online.

Stifel just boosted its price target on the shares to $130 from $125. The consensus target is just $102.83, and Caesars Entertainment stock closed Thursday’s trading at $82.77 per share.

This is a sector leader and the stock has backed up nicely, offering a great entry level. DraftKings Inc. (NASDAQ: DKNG) operates as a digital sports entertainment and gaming company. It provides users with daily sports, sports betting and iGaming opportunities. It also is involved in the design and development of sports betting and casino gaming platform software for online and retail sportsbook and casino gaming products.

The company entered the market in April 2020 at a time when most companies were putting off their initial public offerings. The offering was not an IPO in the truest sense because DraftKings came public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company called Diamond Eagle, but similar rules applied, a practice that has grown exponentially since then.

The company announced last week it is buying the online gambling subsidiary of Golden Nugget in a stock deal valued at $1.56 billion. The acquisition of Golden Nugget Online Gaming gives Boston-based DraftKings a well-known brand in the casino and gambling world and adds more than 5 million customers to the DraftKings iGaming accounts.

Needham started coverage last week and has a $73 price target, which compares with the $70.80 consensus target. Thursday’s closing print DraftKings stock was $44.79 a share.

Flutter Entertainment

While this is perhaps a lesser-known player to most investors, the brands it owns and runs are huge. Flutter Entertainment is the world’s largest bookmaker. It operates as a sports betting and gaming company in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, the United States and elsewhere.

It offers sportsbooks and exchange sports betting products, daily fantasy sports products, and pari-mutuel betting products. It also offers fixed odds games betting products; online games and casinos; peer-to-peer games, including online bingo and poker; and business-to-business services. The company provides sports betting and gaming services through websites under the Paddy Power, Betfair, Sportsbet, TVG, FanDuel and Adjarabet brand names.

Back in December, the company drew one step closer to having complete ownership of fantasy sports and sports betting giant FanDuel after the sportsbook announced it was acquiring an additional 37% stake in the business, bringing its ownership position to 95%. Boyd Gaming owns the remaining 5% interest. Flutter is buying the position from FanDuel owner Fastball Holdings and will pay $2.1 billion in cash plus about 11.7 million in new Flutter stock. The acquisition will lift its ownership stake from 57.8%.

Jefferies has a $260 price target on the over-the-counter traded shares. They closed on Thursday at $187.53 apiece.

This company went public recently and offers aggressive investors an avenue to get some solid share-count leverage. Gambling.com Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: GAMB) is a multi-award-winning performance marketing company and a leading provider of digital marketing services active exclusively in the online gambling industry, based on December 31, 2020, and March 31, 2021, revenue.

The company has more than 140 employees and operates from offices in Ireland, the United States and Malta. Through its proprietary technology platform, the company publishes a portfolio of premier branded websites, including Gambling.com and Bookies.com. Founded in 2006, the company owns and operates more than 30 websites in six languages across 13 national markets covering all aspects of the online gambling industry, which includes online gaming and sports betting.

Stifel started coverage this week with a $12 price target. No consensus was available due to the recent initial public offering. Shares have traded between $6.56 and $8.89 so far, and Thursday’s closing share price was $6.82.

Penn National

This is an analysts’ favorite for online gaming and its shares have been crushed from earlier 2021 highs. Penn National Gaming Inc. (NASDAQ: PENN) owns and manages gaming and racing properties, and it operates video gaming terminals with a focus on slot machine entertainment. It also offers live sports betting at its properties in Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Nevada, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and it operates an online casino under the name of iCasino in Pennsylvania.

Last year, Penn National bought a 36% stake in Barstool Sports valued at $450 million, along with options to increase its stake to 50% in the future. Barstool is a sports media empire that claims 66 million monthly active users, roughly 100 million social media followers and two of the top 30 podcasts in the country.

With huge growth potential, and a big drop in the share price, this is an incredible play for aggressive growth investors.

The $124 Goldman Sachs target price is well above the $101.33 consensus figure. Penn National Gaming stock closed at $65.08 on Tuesday.

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With 32 states now having legalized sports gambling, the massive potential for the total addressable market is more than enough reason for investors with a solid risk appetite to add one or all these stocks to portfolios. The NFL and college football seasons will be huge for all these companies, and more aggressive growth stock investors should consider positions.

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