Tally Ho! It’s A Busted Brush For Fox Bet As They Lose The iGaming Scent
August normally marks the start of the fox hunting season, but by the end of this month Flutter Entertainment and the Fox Corporation will have abandoned their Fox Bet joint-venture in pursuit of iGaming riches.
Irish-origin Flutter has been operating the Fox Bet brand as part of its Stars Group US and PokerStars verticals.
But Fox Bet will become non-operational by August 31 — although the Fox Corporation will retain rights on the Fox Bet moniker, for what it’s worth.
Flutter–lest we forget–already operate and majority-own the hugely prominent and increasingly-successful FanDuel Group in the United States, which has emerged as the pre-eminent sportsbook in the nation against the fierce rivalry of DraftKings and BetMGM, the MGM Resorts International and Entain joint-venture.
As such it makes perfect sense that they should want to ditch the under-performing, needlessly-replicating Fox Bet.
Fox, as can be expected from anything that has a Murdoch at the helm, or thereabouts, maintains its 2.5 percent stake in Flutter — and its hard fought key option to acquire 18.6 percent of US market leader FanDuel.
Fox Bet debuted in May, 2019 under the auspices of the then-Canadian owned Stars Group, which was then sold to Flutter — with Fox subsidiary Fox Sports buying a near five percent minority in the new acquisition for US$236 million (£183.55m).
Within months Fox Bet was live in all-important New Jersey, followed by Colorado, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
But since then it’s pretty much been downhill all the way, with Fox Bet failing to make much of an impact in hyper-competitive U.S. sports betting and both company parents, Flutter and Fox, locked in debilitating financial dispute, squabbling not just over who owns what in Fox Bet but over FanDuel spoils too.
Flutter Entertainment’s and the Fox Corporation’s ‘phased closure’ , or ‘conscious uncoupling’, comes not a moment too soon.
In fox hunting parlance when one loses the scent of the prey it’s formally termed a “loss”.
Loss, lost, loses is certainly an apt term for Fox Bet.
Few will mourn its demise.
Who needs Fox Bet when you’ve got FanDuel? Certainly not FTSE100 Flutter.
