Diamond Sports Group has reached a naming rights agreement with online gaming company FanDuel that will involve changing the name of around two dozen regional sports television networks.
Starting Monday, regional Bally Sports channels will rebrand as FanDuel Sports Network, Diamond Sports said in a statement. The channels will continue to offer professional basketball, baseball and hockey games in key parts of the country, just as they did as Bally Sports.
The channels have carried the Bally Sports branding since 2021, two years after Diamond Sports acquired the Fox Sports regional network from the Walt Disney Company. Through its ongoing bankruptcy case, Diamond Sports revealed earlier this year it was looking at different partners for potential naming rights to the channel, with FanDuel being a leading contender.
Related: Diamond Sports to drop most Major League Baseball telecast deals
On Friday, Diamond Sports said FanDuel had won the exclusive naming rights to 16 regional sports networks as well as the associated streaming platform that offers live games, shoulder programming and other content from the channels.
The agreement will also offer FanDuel different promotional opportunities during live National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB) and National Hockey League (NHL) games aired on the FanDuel Sports Network, and the two sides will also work on a unified direct-to-consumer app experience that will allow FanDuel to syndicate its national TV programming through the FanDuel Sports Network, Diamond Sports said.
“Collaborating with FanDuel provides a tremendous pathway for Diamond to elevate the fan experience and deepen the incremental value we provide for our team, league and distribution partners,” David Preschlack, the CEO of Diamond Sports, said in a statement. “This partnership reinforces opportunities to further strengthen the close connection our RSNs have with local fans, including enhancing our DTC offering for a growing digital audience. In the meantime, having finalized agreements with the NBA, NHL and our key distributors, we remain focused on moving our business forward and driving value for our team partners and our stakeholders.”
Starting Monday, the Bally Sports channels will take on the following region-specific branding:
- FanDuel Sports Network Detroit
- FanDuel Sports Network Florida
- FanDuel Sports Network Great Lakes
- FanDuel Sports Network Kansas City
- FanDuel Sports Network Indiana
- FanDuel Sports Network Midwest
- FanDuel Sports Network North
- FanDuel Sports Network Ohio
- FanDuel Sports Network Oklahoma
- FanDuel Sports Network SoCal
- FanDuel Sports Network South
- FanDuel Sports Network Southeast
- FanDuel Sports Network Southwest
- FanDuel Sports Network Sun
- FanDuel Sports Network West
“Partnering with Diamond provides us an opportunity to put the FanDuel brand at the intersection of the nation’s largest group of regional sports networks,” Mike Raffensperger, the President of Sports at FanDuel, said on Friday. “A large cohort of FanDuel customers are devoted RSN viewers, and this agreement allows us to further cement the FanDuel brand with sports fans and provides a unique vehicle to reward our users.”
The Bally Sports direct-to-consumer streaming app will be renamed under the FanDuel Sports Network brand on Monday. Streamers can subscribe to the FanDuel Sports Network by clicking or tapping here.
