Four years after Fox teamed with The Stars Group to launch online sportsbook/free-to-play betting provider Fox Bet with much fanfare, they look set to shut that down. The Stars Group was bought by Flutter Entertainment (parent of FanDuel, Betfair and more) in 2020. And as per a report from Bloomberg’s Christopher Palmieri and Gerry Smith Friday, Fox and Flutter are now set to close down Fox Bet. And that closure could come as soon as next month:
Fox and Flutter Entertainment plan to wind down their Fox Bet online wagering business starting on Aug. 1 https://t.co/yAfdOBGrfE
— Bloomberg Technology (@technology) July 28, 2023
As per that Bloomberg report, Flutter will keep the customer database and market-access agreements Fox Bet had gained, so they may be able to transfer some of that to FanDuel. Fox Bet had full betting offerings in Colorado, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, and FanDuel has betting offerings in all those states, so they’re not gaining any markets from this, but they may be able to bring over some customers. Outside of those states, Fox Bet’s only offering was the Super 6 free-to-play game, which they heavily promoted with Fox personalities including Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long. Fox will keep rights to the Fox Bet and Super 6 names; it’s possible they could keep the Super 6 promotion running, but that’s not clear.
There are a few different things at play with this move. One of the biggest comes from the partnership changing dramatically after its launch thanks to Flutter’s acquisition of The Stars Group. Fox Bet was the main U.S. sports betting option that company had (they had other offerings, including PokerStars and the international BetStars), but it was smaller than Flutter’s FanDuel, and Flutter opted to invest many of their resources in growing FanDuel rather than Fox Bet. (And, critically, even after this closure, Fox retains an option to buy an 18.6 percent stake in FanDuel, which they picked up from Flutter’s acquisition of The Stars Group.
That option has been the subject of litigation between the parties, though. An arbitrator ruled in 2022 that Fox does have this option (which they have until 2030 to exercise), but at a higher price than they had proposed. And that arbitrator ruling also indicated that Flutter had to fund Fox Bet, but not at the same level as FanDuel. And it confirmed that Fox had the right to buy up to 50 percent of Fox Bet by Aug. 23, 2023, and that if they did not, either side could terminate that service. So Fox presumably did not exercise that right, and that’s likely part of what’s leading to this shutdown.
Beyond that, consolidation is an ongoing thing in the sports betting market at the moment. And that’s especially true when it comes to multiple brands owned by the same company; in particular, Penn National shuttered the U.S. operations of theScore Bet in 2022 (they bought theScore in 2021) to focus on Barstool Sportsbook. There’s also been discussion that other smaller betting operators may get snapped up by bigger companies.
This does not end Fox’s foray into gambling. They still have that option to buy a significant stake in FanDuel. And Bloomberg’s story notes that Fox also has been in talks with other gambling operators about marketing and advertising agreements, so there may be more to follow there. But this does close the chapter on one particularly notable attempt to break into betting.
