U.S. Sports Betting Consolidation Wave Claims Another Victim

The ongoing consolidation of U.S. sports betting has claimed another high-profile casualty.

FanDuel parent company Flutter Entertainment and Fox Sports parent Fox Corp. will shut down Fox Bet over the next month, bringing an end to a four-year experiment that sought to link the power of the Fox brand and an expanded legal framework for U.S. sports betting.

Fox Bet obtained sports betting licenses in Colorado, Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania — each robust markets with multiple pro teams to help drive activity. But a fast-developing wave of industry consolidation has already led to the demise of once-prominent sportsbooks such as MaximBet, Fubo Sportsbook, Churchill Downs, and theScore.

Overall U.S. sports betting is roughly 70% controlled by FanDuel and top rival DraftKings, leaving precious little market share for the multitude of other competitors.

Fox, which owns 2.5% of Flutter, will retain an option to acquire 18.6% of FanDuel, beginning at a $20 billion valuation as of last year and rising at 5% annually through 2030.

“When we look at the totality of our betting position, we increasingly think that the option that we have over FanDuel is the one that’s really important for us,” Steve Tomsic, Fox Corp. CFO, said earlier this year.

A major outlier to the betting consolidation wave is Fanatics, which recently completed its acquisition of PointsBet’s U.S. operations and plans a major rollout.