(Alliance News) - FanDuel, the US sports betting brand owned by UK bookmaker Flutter Entertainment PLC, faces having its ads taken off the air by FoxSports, the US's second-biggest sports television network, amid a dispute over the price for Fox's option to buy a stake in FanDuel, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
Rupert Murdoch's Fox is set to impose an advertising blackout on FanDuel amid the legal row, according to the newspaper.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/04/10/murdochs-fox-poised-take-fanduel-air-flutter-row/
Flutter last week had said it will "vigorously" defend itself against Fox.
The company's shares were down 0.5% at 15,220.00 pence early Monday in London. The broader FTSE 100 index also was down 0.5%.
On Tuesday last week, Fox said it filed an arbitration suit against Flutter to enforce its right to buy an 18.6% stake in FanDuel, at the same price Flutter paid for a 37.2% stake in FanDuel from Fastball in December.
Flutter, which merged its US operations with FanDuel in 2018, had raised its FanDuel holding to 95% in December in the USD4.18 billion deal. Flutter had enlisted Fox's to facilitate the deal, giving it the option to buy 18.6% of FanDuel in July this year.
But Flutter said Fox's position on the price is "incorrect" and that both companies agreed to a fair market valuation as of July 2021. It would be a "windfall to Fox" if Flutter sold the FanDuel stake at an USD11.2 billion valuation.
The dispute goes back to Flutter's merger with US gambling company The Stars Group in 2019. The deal gave Fox Sports, the media partner of The Stars Group, an option to buy a stake in FanDuel.
According to Flutter's announcement of the deal in 2019, Fox Sports was given the right to buy the FanDuel stake "at its market value in 2021".
By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com
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