Fox Corporation can exercise its option to buy a portion of sports betting operator FanDuel at any time until 2030. Still, in the meantime, FanDuel’s parent company, Flutter, remains in flux, unsure whether nearly 20% of its largest asset will be purchased, which could significantly impact its valuation and strategic direction in the competitive sports betting market.
Fox Holds the Cards
As part of Flutter’s deal to buy The Stars Group in 2019, of which Fox Corporation had a 4.99% stake, a 10-year call option to purchase 18.6% of FanDuel was granted to Fox. FanDuel’s valuation was set at $20 billion, and Fox has until December 2030 to buy its negotiated share of FanDuel all at once or not at all.
Each year that elapses in which Fox does not exercise its option, the price increases by five percent. Should Fox decide to pull the trigger to buy nearly one-fifth of FanDuel, it would represent approximately 10% of its parent company, Flutter Entertainment.
Needless to say, Flutter is very much aware of Fox’s option, and it has muddied its corporate projections. Flutter’s most recent 10-K document noted the word “sportsbook” (regarding FanDuel) 110 times, while it mentioned “Fox” 109 times.
Flutter Warns of FanDuel Ownership Risk
“In the event that Fox exercises the Fox Option, we would be required to sell to Fox a significant minority stake in our FanDuel business,” the company wrote in its 2025 10-K filing. “If at that point Fox’s consent is required for certain actions we wish to take and we are unable to obtain it, we may not be able to pursue elements of our business strategy.”
Flutter’s stock has tumbled by nearly 66% since its August 2025 high of $313 per share to where it sits now at $106. Prediction markets offering sports event contracts throughout the nation have scared Flutter’s investors, particularly due to the competitive advantage held by established players like Kalshi and Polymarket, which have already captured significant market share.
Although Flutter recently established its own prediction brand, FanDuel Predicts, it is arriving late to the game, as Kalshi and Polymarket have been offering sports event contracts for well over a year.
Furthermore, FanDuel Predicts will not enter any markets in which its sportsbook, FanDuel, is operating. This decision was made to stay within the good graces of the state gaming commissions.
Prediction Jurisdiction
Prediction markets are governed and licensed under the federal authority of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Therefore, because it is a federal agency, licensees can ostensibly operate in all 50 states.
However, once these prediction markets began offering sports event contracts shortly before the 2025 Super Bowl, online sports books and state gaming commissions began to take notice. Since that time, a blizzard of cease-and-desist letters, accompanied by legal battles, has raged between the states and the prediction markets.
Sportsbooks Launch Their Own Prediction Markets
Most of the online sportsbooks have stayed the course, but the industry leaders, FanDuel and DraftKings, along with Fanatics, have pivoted and launched their own prediction market brands. It is a hedge against further erosion of the mobile sports betting market, as the prediction platforms have been cannibalizing those sports betting dollars.
Play’n Go Chief of Government Affairs, Shawn Fluharty, recently spoke at the NEXT Summit NYC gaming industry conference and commented on sportsbooks getting in on the prediction market industry, even at the peril of alienating sports gaming regulators.
“It’s a short-term bet, but it’s a long-term problem that’s not going to play well long-term,” Fluharty said.
