The Dublin based sports betting provider is already home to Paddy Power and Betfair as well as the fantasy sports provider, FanDuel based in New York. Now Flutter is standing on the brink of becoming even more significant with an acquisition offer on the table to buy the Canadian competitor, The Stars Group. When this deal is finalized, the combined company will serve over 13 million users based in more than 100 countries globally, and they will be the biggest service provider in the industry.

Since the legislation concerned with sports betting and gambling in the States changed during May last year, they have become a much-desired location for many sports betting providers internationally. Often the interest in this new and very lucrative market is shown by companies based either in Ireland or the UK. They have years of expertise and are ready to invest and claim their share of this new market. Flutter Entertainment is based in Ireland, and The Stars Group is Canadian based, thus neither has direct access to the States. Yet this deal will enable them to strengthen their position across the border and be able to crush the US market.

Currently, New Jersey is quickly catching up with Nevada as gambling capital. During the last couple of months, NJ was exceeding Nevada in the number of sports bets which were placed. Yet the next-door neighbour to NJ is Pennsylvania with a much larger population, and soon it is expected that their exploding market will dwarf that of Nevada. This was the reason why Flutter bought FanDuel. FanDuel is the leading sports betting provider in both New Jersey as well as in Pennsylvania. Fox Bet also serves the same market. CEOs of both FanDuel and FoxBet have stated that even if the two companies become siblings in the same family, they will remain operating separately since they serve different market sectors. FanDuel is focused on sports betters and fans who are doing this professionally while Fox Bet is more inclined towards the casual gambler out there.

Projections

The complicated deal is projected to be finalized only towards the end of next year. The shareholders in both companies need to give their approval for the acquisition to continue, and they must consider the fact that this is a cross-border deal with more than one country’s legislation to consider. More focus will, however, be placed on Flutter Entertainment by the UK regulators, since they will have the most significant control within the company. The purchase will also benefit Fox significantly with the provided option to purchase FanDuel shares. The company will be able to buy up to 18.5% of the shares in FanDuel beginning in 2021. Fox also already owns roughly 5% of the shares in The Stars Group too. These two entities showed combined revenue in access of $4.1 billion during the previous year, and together, they will be worth more than $11 billion.