FanDuel Fox Dispute Both Sides Claim Victory

The dispute between Flutter Entertainment and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation over the acquisition of shares in the duel owned sports betting company FanDuel took another development late last week.

On Friday a New York judge ruled that the Fox Corporation should be allowed to but an 18.6% stake in FanDuel for $3.7 billion with the media company claiming victory. However, Flutter said it was the winner as Fox wanted to only pay $2.3 billion for the shares.

Peter Jackson, chief executive of Flutter said that the ruling “vindicates the confidence we had in our position on this matter and provides certainty on what it would cost Fox to buy into this business, should they wish to do so”.

But the issue of a stock exchange float on the New York Stock Exchange is still in dispute with Fox claiming Flutter needs permission from them prior to the float, something Flutter argues.

However, Fox said it was “pleased with the fair and favourable outcome of the Flutter arbitration. Flutter cannot pursue an IPO for FanDuel without Fox’s consent or approval from the arbitrator”.

Flutter thou followed up with another statement stating: “We can also confirm on-the-record that Fox does not have a block on any potential IPO of FanDuel, should one occur.”

Although the legal dispute with the share buy up is now concluded there seems some way to go for an agreement on the shares float.