Fox Corporation CEO holds “fundamentally strong” belief in sportsbook potential
Lachlan Murdoch confirms autumn end of Flutter arbitration will trigger more activity in FOX Bet brand as part of new NFL season
Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch has affirmed a deeply held “fundamentally strong” belief in the potential of sports betting and its potential integration with the broadcasting giants media arsenal.
Speaking as part of Fox Corp’s Q4 2022 financial results call, Murdoch lauded the FOX Bet business and its headline FOX Bet Super 6 free-to-play game as a vehicle providing FOX Sports audiences with a route into sports betting.
“We continue to have a fundamentally strong belief in the sports betting business,” Murdoch told investors.
“We think it’s a huge opportunity in the marketplace, specifically in its association with the FOX Sports brand.
“We drive the largest sports audiences in this country and no other broadcaster can achieve the kind of the reach and engagement that we deliver, certainly during the fall on a weekly basis.”
Murdoch continued: “We’ve proven this in the last couple of years with FOX Bet’s Super 6, which is really taking our sports TV audiences into betting.
“FOX Bet Super 6 provides a tremendous funnel, which FOX Bet is the ultimate beneficiary of. That continues to be our strategy and it continues to be very successful,” the Fox Corporation CEO added.
Murdoch’s remarks echo comments made in previous financial results calls in which he noted his “disappointment” in the slow rollout of the FOX Bet brand, which is joint operated on a 50/50 basis with Flutter Entertainment.
At present, FOX Bet remains largely the lesser of Flutter’s US brands, with the London-listed operator favoring US sportsbook market leader FanDuel, which has spurred much of the international gambling group’s revenue growth over previous financial quarters.
The JV owners are currently locked in arbitration over a potential purchase by Fox Corp of an 18.6% option in the FanDuel business, guaranteed as part of a pre-existing agreement between the duo.
Under the terms of the agreement between the two parties, Fox can purchase the stake based on a “fair market valuation” of the business as at July 2021.
However, Fox has disputed this, claiming the figure should be based on a December 2020 valuation when Flutter bought a 37.2% share in the FanDuel business from FastBall Holdings to increase its stake to 95%.
Arbitration proceedings were filed with the New York Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Service (JAMS) in April 2021, proceedings which have yet to be fully resolved more than a year later.
Murdoch, for his part, remained upbeat about the prospects for a resolution, suggesting it would spur a period of greater investment and strategic activity surrounding the FOX Bet business.
“We look forward to the clarity of getting through that process, which we expect to be in the next couple of months certainly by the beginning of the autumn,” Murdoch said.
“Once that situation is clarified and also in early September as you see the NFL season kick off again, you’ll see a lot more activity around FOX Bet and FOX Bet Super 6,” he added.
Much of Fox’s sports betting activity is concentrated outside of the US via the News Corporation entity, which is set to launch an online sports betting brand in Australia, in partnership with ex-BetEasy CEO Matt Tripp and investment fund Tekkorp.
In June, News Corp was linked with a A$220m bid for PointsBet, which has extensive operations in both its native Australia and in the US where it operates across 10 states.