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More changes are coming to Diamond Sports’ regional sports networks.
The company said in court papers filed Tuesday that it had reached a naming rights deal with BeatFanDuel-owned FanDuel will rebrand the Bally Sports channels just as the National Hockey League season has begun and the 2024-2025 National Basketball Association season is less than a week away.
Diamond Sports said in the filing that if it successfully emerges from bankruptcy protection, FanDuel will be a “long-term naming rights partner.” The new naming rights deal would also give FanDuel the right to purchase up to 5% of the equity of the reorganized company and obtain performance warrants for up to 5% of the equity.
The agreement is subject to court approval.
The new partnership will bring Diamond Sports even closer to emerging from bankruptcy and will give FanDuel, which is already the No. 1 sports betting company by market share, even more exposure.
In Tuesday’s court papers, Diamond said that although discussions with FanDuel began in February, the company waited until finalizing deals with the NBA and NHL to negotiate final terms of the naming rights deal . A representative for FanDuel declined to comment beyond the filings, and specific financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Diamond Sports said in court documents that it considered FanDuel “an attractive potential partner … due to the high degree of alignment” between regional sports networks and the online gaming industry.
It will be the third name of the regional sports networks. As part of its acquisition of Fox Corp.the strengths of ., Disney had to divest the networks in order to obtain regulatory approval. Disney offloaded the networks, still under the Fox Sports banner, in 2019 to Sinclair. A naming rights deal happened later sign with a gaming company Bally’s Corp..
Bally’s Corp. deal ended as part of the regulation which happened earlier this year between Diamond Sports and Sinclair.
Diamond, which remains an independent, unconsolidated subsidiary of Sinclair, alleged in the lawsuit that Sinclair’s ownership exacerbated its problems. Sinclair has not admitted wrongdoing.
Diamond Sports filed for bankruptcy protection last year. Since then, Diamond’s restructuring has been filled with discussions with the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball as the debt-ridden company attempted to emerge from bankruptcy.
Diamond Sports said in court documents that, based on financial projections, it hopes to emerge from bankruptcy as soon as December.
Throughout the bankruptcy proceedings, teams from all three leagues left the networks and flocked en masse to different local viewing options for their fans.
Earlier this month, Diamond Sports announced plans to drop all of its MLB teams, except the Atlanta Braves, for the 2025 season. The existing teams’ contracts are in various stages with Diamond Sports, but in total, the company would see 11 MLB teams opt out.
A lawyer for Diamond Sports said in court earlier this month that abandoning these teams “was not our preferred path.”
Several MLB teams, including the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks, left regional sports networks in 2023, and MLB has produced the teams’ local games since then. On Tuesday, the league announced it would also do the same for the Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins for the 2025 season.
Some NBA teams that left regional sports networks have turned to local broadcast stations to broadcast local games. The NHL’s Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks have launched over-the-top streaming partnerships with Victory+, a sports streamer owned by Canadian company A Parent Media Co., for their local viewing.