Fox Corporation Acquires Outkick Media, LLC
Fox Corporation Acquires Outkick Media, LLC: In yet another move that illustrates the increasing influence and popularity that sports wagering is having on the value of media organizations, Fox Corporation has agreed to acquire Outkick Media, LLC, Clay Travis’ digital media enterprise. The popular and insightful Travis founded the company and has continually expanded its content to include radio broadcasts, podcasts, and other digital media.
More recently, Outkick has successfully moved into the sports wagering space, which apparently is what led Fox to make the acquisition that was announced earlier this month. The combination of quality, trusted sports-related content along with the addition of wagering information have uniquely positioned the company within its industry.
Synergies Between Fox and Outkick
There are a lot of synergies between the two companies as both have relationships with FanDuel, including Outkick’s exclusive marketing agreement with the online sportsbook and Daily Fantasy Sports operator and Fox’s option to purchase 18.5% of FanDuel.
FoxBet, the online sportsbook operator that has successfully implemented sites in several states since the advent of legalized sports betting, is owned by Flutter, the Ireland based parent company of FanDuel. According to Fox’s press release on the transaction, Outkick is also a source of quality wagering leads for FanDuel.
Clay Travis hosts a sports radio show that reaches an estimated 10 million listeners on a monthly basis and is the top morning show in its category, and Outkick’s podcast network reportedly generates average monthly downloads of more than 4 million since its inception in September.
Rather than absorb Outkick into its current breadth of media operations, Fox plans to keep the operations of the subsidiary independent, leveraging the strength of the brand to increase their own reach in the sports wagering industry. Clay Travis will continue to have a significant role in the company and will serve as President of the entity.
Sports Betting Environment
The growth in the sports wagering media space began to explode following the ruling in 2018 by the Supreme Court of the United States that struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). The ruling gave every state the ability to pass legislation legalizing sports betting, which under PASPA had only been granted to the state of Nevada.
With sports betting perceived as legal on a national basis, it created an opportunity for sports leagues and media outlets to embrace the practice rather than treat it as some underworld activity. As a result, online sportsbook operators, wagering related content providers, and other gambling related organizations have experienced tremendous growth.
Outkick is a perfect example of a company that moved from sports reporting and commentary into wagering information, differentiating themselves from other media outlets and making them more valuable in the view of a company like the Fox Corporation. Informing sports fans with a focus on how they can use that knowledge to place wagers is now a mainstream activity and that expertise, as evidenced by the Fox purchase of Outkick, is worth an increasing amount of value.
