Diamond Sports Group, the company behind Bally Sports MLB channels around the country, could stop broadcasting games for 11 of its 12 Major League Baseball partners. The details emerged in a bankruptcy court hearing on Wednesday.
Bally’s Corporation and DSG had a branding and broadcasting partnership with 14 MLB franchises. The gaming company hoped the naming rights would attract baseball fans to its Bally Bet online betting app.
Viewing habits short-circuited the broadcast-to-betting pacts, however. An increasing number of viewers favor streaming services over cable or satellite dish providers. The exodus impacted carriage fees and advertising revenue.
DSG tried to follow its viewers to their direct-to-streaming options, but the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2023.
DSG Already Ended Some Bally Sports MLB Agreements
Diamond still wants to carry the Atlanta Braves on Bally Sports South and Bally Sports Southeast in 2025, but the company has dropped — or may drop — broadcast agreements with 13 MLB franchises.
MLB took over broadcast rights mid-season for the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres in June 2023.
DSG’s partnerships with the Cleveland Guardians, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, and Texas Rangers expired at the end of the 2024 MLB regular season.
Seven Bally Sports MLB teams will either have to renegotiate terms with Diamond or find a new broadcast partner:
- Cincinnati Reds
- Detroit Tigers
- Kansas City Royals
- Los Angeles Angels
- Miami Marlins
- St. Louis Cardinals
- Tampa Bay Rays
“Today marks an important step forward for Diamond with the filing of a baseline plan to enable us to emerge from bankruptcy as a viable, go-forward business before year-end,” a Diamond Sports Group spokesperson told news outlets in a Wednesday statement. “We have delivered proposals to and remain in discussions with our MLB team partners around go-forward plans. We firmly believe that through our linear and digital offerings, we have created the best economic and fan-friendly engine for all of our team partners.”
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Could FanDuel Come to the Rescue?
A Chapter 11 hearing in June hinted at a sports betting bailout for the Regional Sports Networks. As part of DSG’s reorganization plan, it told a bankruptcy judge it found a new legacy naming rights partner to replace Bally’s.
“We recently reached an agreement in principle with a third party on rebranding the RSNs, and we are working diligently to turn that agreement in principle into a document agreement,” Diamond’s counsel said, according to the sports business website Sportico. In another June 2024 piece, Bloomberg reported that FanDuel Sportsbook might be the new company behind the naming rights.
FanDuel parent company Flutter Entertainment CEO Peter Jackson didn’t provide an update for investors when asked during an August earnings call.