The NBA season ended Monday night with a raucous fête inside Ball Arena, as the Denver Nuggets and their fans celebrated the franchise’s first-ever league title.
As Nikola Jokic attempted to poke the ball from Heat guard Gabe Vincent late in the third quarter, a camera captured a next steps of its proposed acquisition of PointsBet’s U.S. assets, it is fair to wonder whether Monday’s game will mark the final time that the signage will appear inside the arena.
When Fanatics Caesars Entertainment completed an acquisition of William Hill in 2021. If completed, the deal will give Fanatics market access to as many as 14 states, as the nascent sportsbook gears up for its first full season of football. For now, investors await PointsBet’s shareholder meeting on June 30, one where the Fanatics deal could be approved.
The transfer of the Colorado assets before the start of the 2023-2024 NBA regular season would give Fanatics signage at Ball Arena when the Nuggets lift the championship banner. A Fanatics Sportsbook spokesman declined comment on Monday when reached by Sports Handle.
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Three months after making the most of their NHL bets.
PointsBet opened an eponymous sports bar at Ball Arena and became a sports betting partner of KSE’s Altitude TV and Altitude Sports Radio. The operator also received signage on Nuggets’ hoop stanchions and Avs’ dasher boards, gaining additional national exposure in title runs from both teams over the last two seasons.
PointsBet followed that up by inking a five-year, 2018 PASPA decision.
From the conclusion of the shareholder meeting to the completion of the Fanatics transaction, PointsBet will have a funding requirement of approximately $21 million for its U.S. business, the company wrote in a statement announcing the deal. As part of the deal, PointsBet’s commercial commitments to NBCUniversal will be transferred in full to Fanatics Betting and Gaming, according to the companies.
Beyond PointsBet’s obligations to NBC, the companies have been fairly mum on the transfer of certain state assets not specified in the sale agreement. The companies expect the initial portion of the deal to be completed on or around Aug. 31, according to a stock and equity sales agreement released in May.
Upon initial completion, Fanatics will acquire the entities that own and operate PointsBet’s business in at least three states. When the company issued notice of the general shareholders meeting last month, the operator listed Pennsylvania, Colorado was included on the list.
By next February, when the initial portion of the transaction sunsets, the companies are expected to begin the second phase of integration.
With disparate verticals ranging from jersey sales to NFTs, Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin views the company as a one-stop shop for sports fans looking to place bets through a common wallet. While Fanatics can draw upon its database of more than 95 million customers to attract new bettors, some investors are still calling on the company to market its sportsbook product heavily this fall.
When rumors of the PointsBet acquisition circulated last month, an industry expert told Sports Handle that he was interested in how much the company will spend on marketing in the first year of sportsbook operations. One of the industry leaders, DraftKings, spent more than $1.1 billion on sales and marketing expenses in 2022 alone.
A transfer of the KSE assets will give Fanatics signage in one of the few arenas nationwide that is home to an NBA and NHL team.
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Last week, PointsBet released an update that illustrates the backing of the sale from key shareholders. As of June 7, eight of PointsBet’s top 10 shareholders had either voted in favor of the proposal or advised the company that they intend to vote in favor of the sale absent a superior proposal.
In total, the eight shareholders represent about 44.6% of the company’s issued capital. (Among the top 10 shareholders, PointsBet did not disclose the two holdouts.) The proposal requires 50% approval from shareholders that take part in the vote.
Last June, SIG Sports Investments Corp. became the largest shareholder of PointsBet when it purchased 38 million shares at a price of A$2.43 per share (A$94 million). Sig Sports is a division of Susquehanna International Group of Companies, one of the world’s largest proprietary financial trading firms.
Despite the sale of its U.S. assets, PointsBet will continue to operate in Australia, Massachusetts sportsbook promotions — and intends to take bets in a host of the nation’s top markets by the start of football season.
