In a move that shows them thinking about future revenue streams, there Murdochs have increased their investment non gambling.
This, from Crikey, last week.
Toxic betting industry no barrier to the Murdochs as they up gambling stake
The Murdoch family has profited big time from the gambling industry over the years and they are doing it again with Dublin-based Flutter Entertainment, which last week bought an additional 37% stake in US fantasy sports outfit FanDuel for a whopping US$4.2 billion.
The deal was partly funded by a $1.8 billion Flutter share placement which the Murdoch-controlled Fox Corp was happy to back once again.
The Flutter announcement included this 16-page presentation, plus this approving quote from Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch:
“ We are delighted to participate in this capital raising. Maintaining our ownership stake in Flutter signifies our long-term commitment to Flutter, and ongoing confidence in management’s ability to execute against the fast growing US [sports gambling] opportunity. FOX’s audiences have proven to be highly engaged with free to play and wagering content, and we are excited to offer them access to products from Flutter’s market leading stable of US brands. Flutter is fast becoming a global behemoth. Through its NT-licensed Sportsbet brand, it is now Australia’s biggest online gambling company with an estimated market share of 52% after including the recently merged BetEasy business. It is forecast to extract around $2 billion of the $25 billion that Australian gamblers are expected to lose in 2020-21 and has been making a fortune during COVID-19, particularly because the racing industry was nationally exempt for the shutdowns.
These two fantasy sports businesses are now seen as the fastest way to access gamblers as deregulation sweeps across America and cash-strapped states look for new revenue streams after their budgets were ravaged by COVID-19 shutdowns.
Rupert Murdoch used to be against gambling, partly on the grounds that it took dollars away from consumers who might buy his media products.
But then he saw the profit potential of linking gambling with sports broadcasting and in 2005 successfully lobbied Tony Blair to deregulate gambling rules in the UK.
As Crikey has noted before, the Murdochs then built up Sky Betting & Gaming which ended up delivering clear profits of about $2 billion to the broader Murdoch interests (via Sky PLC) when that business was sold to Canada’s The Stars Group for US$4.7 billion in 2018.
Having tasted success in the UK, Fox Corp subsequently created the 50-50 Fox Bet joint venture in the US with The Stars Group once the US Supreme Court legalised sports gambling in May 2018.
Fox Corp took a 5% stake in Stars for US$236 million as part of the Fox Bet joint venture which then became a 2.6% stake in Flutter once those two businesses merged earlier this year. The original 3.23 million Flutter shares which Fox Corp inherited through the merger are now worth around US$650 million but Fox Corp has subsequently supported two further placements by Flutter this year as it dives further into the gambling business.
Like denying climate change, backing Trump and tolerating industrial-scale phone hacking, there are few ethical barriers which stand in the way of the Murdoch modus operandi. They seem to have no problems whatsoever profiting from the toxic gambling industry.
I have two points here:
- This story is a reminder to newsagents to work on new traffic revenue, it’s critical to any business.
- This is not a story that would be covered in this detail in mass media in Australia, given the concentration of ownership.
Murdoch press has wiped newsagents as such. No longer agents in any way resellers same as Coles Woolworths etc. Fairfax have followed suit.
End of story -they served thier purpose now it’s time to as retailers to serve ours.
Identify this and we are on our way. Look at community for the base of existance and utilise what we already have without bias re product. We are now retaliers the past is the past.