Fanatics Inc. will buy the US operations of Australia’s PointsBet, CNBC reported Sunday afternoon, in the company’s biggest foray into sports betting to date.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, CNBC reported that the deal, worth about $150 million, could be announced as early as Sunday night. CNBC said the acquisition only applies to PointsBet’s PBH,
US assets. Fanatics did not immediately respond to MarketWatch’s request for confirmation of the report late Sunday night.
PointsBet is an online sportsbook that launched in the United States in 2019 and operates in 15 states, including New Jersey, Iowa, Illinois, and Colorado.
If confirmed, the deal should increase pressure on US sports betting companies like DraftKings Inc. DKNG,
and FanDuel. In late April, Fanatics launched sports betting for its customers in Ohio and Tennessee, and the Wall Street Journal reported at the time that the company is looking to invest about $1 billion in its new sports betting division .
In an interview, Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin told the Journal that he wants Fanatics to be the best sports betting company in the world within the next 10 years and expects its betting operations to be profitable by 2025 or in 2026.
In December, Florida-based Fanatics, which started out in sportswear and collectibles, closed a $700 million funding round, valuing it at about $31 billion, Wall Street reported Journal. The private company is expected to launch an IPO.
Last year, Fanatics acquired trading card company Topps.