Sinclair Strikes Sports Betting Deal With Bally's, Regional Sports Networks To Be Rebranded

Sinclair Broadcast Group is making a major sports betting technology deal where its 21 Fox sports networks will be rebranded with the Bally’s name -- a deal reported to be worth $85 million.

Sinclair and Bally's will jointly market and integrate products to Sinclair's stable of 190 TV stations across 88 markets.

For the 10-year term of the deal, Sinclair's regional sports-network portfolio will receive naming rights fees as well as a set percentage of Bally's marketing spend.

The deal will also give Bally’s “integration opportunities” across Sinclair’s sports cable network, Tennis Channel, its sports network, Stadium, and STIRR, Sinclair's direct-to-consumer streaming app for live and on-demand content.

Hulu+ Live TV and YouTube TV -- two virtual pay TV providers -- recently dropped Sinclair’s RSNs from their services. Sling TV and Dish Network dropped the channels in July 2019, ad FuboTV dropped them this past January.

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Sinclair acquired the RSNs from Walt Disney for $9.6 billion in 2019.

Recently, Sinclair posted a massive $4.18 billion third-quarter operating loss due to regional sports networks (RSNs) and other issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The debt load of Sinclair’s Diamond Sports group was nearly $8 billion in the second quarter.

The 21 regional sports networks represent more than half of the teams across the Major League Baseball, NBA, and NHL leagues.

Bally's Corp. currently owns and manages 10 casinos in six states, a horse racetrack, and 13 authorized OTB licenses in Colorado.

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