Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00There's still a lot that's going on here, there's bankruptcy court involved.
00:07To me, it does feel like this Diamond Sports group is just a short-term deal here and they're
00:12going to be out.
00:13That's the way I see it eventually, unless they get some huge bailout from Amazon or
00:16someone else.
00:17In the short term, it seems to me, Sam, what Diamond Sports is doing is saying, hey, look,
00:22we got to pay these teams somehow.
00:24Let's get more money from someone and it looks like FanDuel's the one that's willing to pony
00:28up and do it.
00:30Yeah, Craig, it's a complicated situation as you just broke down.
00:35It's essentially what was reported on Monday by Bloomberg is that FanDuel is very close
00:40to a deal to essentially buy the rights or the naming rights to all these regional sports
00:45networks.
00:46There's about 18 different broadcast channels that Diamond Sports group owns currently,
00:52which operate, like you said, under the Valley Sports banner.
00:55These are channels that reach a lot of local TV station and sports viewers in places like
01:01Charlotte, places like LA, Atlanta, a lot of cities.
01:05I use MSG Network to watch the Knicks games, for example, but if you're in Charlotte, you'd
01:10be using Valley Sports to watch the Hornets game.
01:13These are a lot of local TV networks that a lot of fans around the country really rely
01:16on.
01:18What I have covered this week was that the bankruptcy case that you talked about is going
01:22to play a huge part in whether or not this deal actually gets done.
01:26I'm told by multiple sources that FanDuel or anyone, for that matter, who would buy
01:31essentially the rights to these channels would want to wait until that bankruptcy case is
01:35over so as not to sort of assume any debt that Diamond is taking on.
01:40Now, I want to hit home here that they would not be buying Diamond Sports Group.
01:44They would be buying the rights to all these channels, which, like you alluded to, are
01:49still under a lot of negotiations with different leagues.
01:52Diamond is in a really messy spot right now as it sort of tries to balance getting out
01:57of this bankruptcy case.
01:58It has that hearing scheduled for late July, whether or not they'll actually get out of
02:02that bankruptcy case.
02:03That's another matter entirely.
02:05And then also, at the same time, they're trying to negotiate with different leagues like the
02:09MLB, NBA, and NHL because a lot of the rights to the teams that they broadcast are up at
02:15the end of this year.
02:16So it's a big mess.
02:17As you know, it's caused some fans in local places not to be able to watch their games,
02:22really have no way to watch it.
02:23I know Apple stepped in, assuming some of the coverage there, but it's really messy
02:29for Diamond.
02:30But it would be on the FanDuel side, it would be a major media move for a company that we've
02:35already seen invest a lot in media.
02:37They launched FanDuel TV last year, I believe now already, which obviously has huge talent
02:43like Kay Adams, Chandler Parsons, Shams Parania.
02:47So they're really trying to move into the sports space, not just sports betting.
02:50So acquiring these channels, they would add about 37 team broadcasts to their arsenal,
02:57give or take.
02:58I'm told by multiple sources that it would not impact FanDuel TV programming immediately,
03:02but there would be a lot of opportunity for crossover or cross-selling between the two
03:06networks.
03:08So negotiations are still ongoing, obviously.
03:10It seems like we're going to wait till the end of July to kind of figure out what's going
03:14on here.
03:15But it would give FanDuel a pretty big presence in those major cities I talked about before,
03:19which don't have sports betting.
03:20Obviously, Bally Sports does their own sports betting.
03:24And they were really bullish on this as kind of a tool to get new customers in those places
03:29when they first started it.
03:30But unfortunately, they've had a lot of problems with the Bally's app and the company at large.
03:35FanDuel, not the same as Bally's, it's the biggest sports betting operator in the US.
03:39So it would be very interesting to see what they do differently here because, you know,
03:45Bally paid $9.6 billion for this deal a few years ago when they got it over from Fox Sports.
03:51I'm told that FanDuel would be paying a very big discount, but FanDuel is very disciplined
03:55with their capital.
03:56So I have to think that there's a lot in store here if the deal goes down.