DraftKings and rival FanDuel are believed to be among the companies who are bidding for The Athletic following the news that talks over a potential takeover by another media company have fallen through.
The Athletic co-founders Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann have been looking for buyers, but their reported valuation of $750 million has seen muted interest in the subscription-based sports media company.
Launched in 2016, The Athletic covers sports across 47 cities in the United States and in the UK. In 2020, the company reached the one million paying subscribers mark sparking takeover interest from other sports media companies.
That led to a proposed merger deal with Axios in March on 2021. The merger deal would have seen both companies going public as a joint entity, but the talks fell through with no significant progress made. Then in June of this year, the New York Times was rumored to be interested in taking over the company, but those negotiations also led to nothing.
The reported interest from both DraftKings and FanDuel comes not long after Macquarie Research forecast a $30 billion sports betting and iGaming market by 2030 with much of that revenue attributable to operator partnerships with media firms. The two biggest names in sports betting in the USA have been quick to understand the true value of media relationships and ownership as both look to dominate the relatively new industry.
DraftKings purchased Vegas Sports Information Network (VSiN) in March of this year and just a month later announced a $50 million investment in Meadowlark Media. The company was also linked with the purchase of Score Media & Gaming, but it was a competitor, Penn National Gaming that sealed that particular deal for a reported $2 billion.
The Athletic’s current valuation of $750 million is considerably more than the company was valued at last year. In 2020, the media firm raised $50 million in venture funding placing a $500 million valuation on the company. Despite raising funding and having significant backers, it’s believed that the firm isn’t profitable suggesting that any deal could end up being worth less than the co-founders valuation.
Ciaran has been working within the Gambling Industry as a deep analyst since 2019. His deep knowledge and understanding of all the gambling regulations, and processes makes him a true asset, and an always valuable point of view for Gambling Industry News, allowing us to cover every topics from a brand new perspective.