It’s all but official now as PointsBet intends to sell off it’s U.S. assets to Fanatics. News first broke of this agreement back in May, but there have been some interesting pieces to this saga since that time.
The board of executives at PointsBet has unanimously recommended to the shareholders to accept the $225 million bid from Fanatics. That’s a much larger figure than what was initially submitted, but it came after DraftKings Sportsbook attempted to get into the mix as well.
An official vote is expected to take place later this week, and an official announcement could come on Friday. PointsBet Sportsbook is founded in Sydney, Australia, but it did build up a headquarters in Denver, Colorado when it started to break into the U.S. market.
The current proposal calls for Fanatics to take control over the assets on August 31, and that will allow the company to move quickly. This is going to be the biggest sports betting deal in the industry since Caesars Sportsbook purchased the U.S. assets of William Bill back in 2021.
PointsBet Sportsbook just wasn’t making enough money in the United States to continue moving forward, but it does plan to still offer sports betting elsewhere. This sportsbook operator brought a new form of sports betting to the bettors in the U.S., but that option is set to go away.
DraftKings Backs Out
DraftKings Sportsbook tried to get into the mix with a late bid of $195 million, but Fanatics Sportsbook saw right through the plan all along. Immediately, executives from Fanatics called it a defensive move from the sports betting giant, but it did cause Fanatics to enter a bigger bid.
DraftKings wasn’t looking for more than the technology services that would have come with the deal, but it eventually realized it wasn’t worth the price. It’s unclear if PointsBet would have even strongly considered the DraftKings offer as it was an unsolicited offer.
One thing that did come from this entire saga was a report that DraftKings and Fanatics actually talked about a merger back in 2021. That would have been a $48 billion merger, but the two sides were not able to come to an agreement at that time.
New Market Access Gained
The main reason that Fanatics Sportsbook wanted to purchase the U.S. assets of PointsBet Sportsbook is to gain market access in additional states. Fanatics is currently in just three sports betting markets, but that is going to change once this deal becomes official.
The state of New York is the ultimate goal for Fanatics, and that will now become a possibility after this deal goes through. It’s unclear how this transition is going to take place, but it shouldn’t take long to begin.
The share prices of PointsBet have jumped close to 20% since the initial announcement of the sale, and that should help shareholders vote to approve the sale.
