Sports-betting company DraftKings, Inc. is no longer pursuing the acquisition of the U.S. business of PointsBet Holdings, Ltd. The move comes after Fanatics upped its bid for the Australia-based PointsBet’s U.S. business.
DraftKings, just two weeks ago, made an 11th-hour offer to outbid Fanatics for the PointsBet business. The company made a last-minute $195 million offer to acquire the U.S. operations of Australia-based PointsBet, topping a bid from Fanatics valued at $150 million last month. At the time, Fanatics said it did not think DraftKings made the offer in good faith.
“We are skeptical of the DraftKings proposal, which seems like a desperate move to slow down Fanatics and PointsBet from completing the deal as the purchase price and other financial commitments will total more than $500 million—so they are using the majority of their projected year-end cash just to try to block us,” Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin said in a statement following the DraftKings bid.
Fanatics returned on Monday with a new $225 million bid, with $175 million paid at closing and $50 million in early 2024. DraftKings also missed a Tuesday deadline to submit a binding offer.
The PointsBet board appears ready to move on the latest Fanatics offer, suggesting it “is superior in terms of both pricing and certainty of being able to complete on a timely basis,” PointsBet said late Tuesday.
Bids are subject to shareholder approval at a meeting scheduled for June 30.
Photo courtesy PointsBet
