Diamond Sports Group (DSG), the US regional sports broadcast operator slowly emerging from financial trouble, has agreed a naming rights deal with US sports betting firm FanDuel to rebrand its Bally Sports regional sports networks (RSNs).
DSG revealed the agreement, which is subject to court approval, in court papers filed on Tuesday (October 15).
In the filing, DSG said that FanDuel will be a “long-term naming rights partner if it can emerge from bankruptcy protection.”
The company added that it considered FanDuel “an attractive potential partner … due to the high degree of alignment” between the RSNs and the online gaming business.
The new naming rights agreement would also give FanDuel the right to buy up to 5% of equity in the reorganized company and get performance warrants for up to 5% of equity.
DSG revealed that discussions with FanDuel began in February but waited until it finalized agreements with the NBA and NHL to negotiate the final terms of the naming rights deal.
The tie-up will allow DSG to get one step closer to emerging from bankruptcy, and has been announced soon after the start of the NHL (ice hockey) season and less than a week before the 2024-2025 NBA (basketball) campaign tips off.
FanDuel will be the third brand to put its name to the RSNs. As part of its acquisition of Fox Corp’s assets, media giant Disney had to divest the networks to gain regulatory approval. Disney then offloaded the networks, still under the Fox Sports banner, in 2019 to Sinclair.
A naming rights deal was later signed with gaming company Bally’s.
However, Bally’s agreement ended as part of the settlement earlier this year between Diamond Sports and Sinclair Broadcast Group. FanDuel will take over in 2025.
DSG first went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganization proceedings in March 2023, and over recent months has been renegotiating its various local deals with a wide range of US sports teams.
In early September, it unveiled new deals covering its NBA and NHL partners - although dropping the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans - while late July saw a new agreement with media giant Comcast announced, after a months-long dispute.
The terms of the deal state that DSG must emerge from bankruptcy by April 1 next year.
Under the Bally Sports brand, DSG owns 18 RSNs, which - combined - hold the local rights to 37 professional US teams across Major League Baseball (MLB), the NBA, and the NHL.
DSG recently submitted a plan through which it intends to abandon broadcast rights for 11 of 12 MLB franchises.
The firm currently has contracts in place with a dozen teams but told a court it would only continue as a local channel distributor of the Atlanta Braves.
MLB, however, has been a consistent opponent of DSG’s attempts to emerge from bankruptcy, decrying the lack of clarity the consistently embattled local broadcast landscape has and its effect on the franchises.
The league and DSG have long been locked in a bitter struggle, with the former lamenting the latter’s financial situation that has forced the league to take over local broadcast rights and production for a number of its franchises.
MLB has already been forced to step in and take over the distribution and production of games played by the San Diego Padres and the Arizona Diamondbacks after those teams failed to agree to new DSG deals when their contracts expired last year.
Earlier this month, the league announced that it will produce local broadcasts for the Cleveland Guardians, Milwaukee Brewers, and Minnesota Twins franchises in the 2025 season after these franchises were dropped by DSG.
