Flutter Rebrands TVG Horse Racing Channel As FanDuel TV, Eyes Increased Sports Betting Revenue

During the week of the Super Bowl in February, then-FanDuel chief marketing officer Mike Raffensperger met with Kay Adams, the popular host of the NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football” program.

Adams at the time knew that she would voluntarily leave the show following the NFL draft and was open to seeing what opportunities she could pursue. Raffensperger, meanwhile, was trying to recruit her to join the company.

The two have now joined forces as Adams on Sept. 6 began hosting her own show on FanDuel TV, a cable channel known until this month as TVG, a horse racing network. FanDuel and TVG are both owned by Flutter Entertainment plc, a company based in Ireland whose shares trade on the London Stock Exchange.

The rebranding represents Flutter’s desire to drive more business to FanDuel, which posted its first quarterly profit in the second quarter of this year. Flutter noted in a presentation to investors last month that FanDuel had a 51% market share of gross gaming revenue share in the states where FanDuel operates. But the company faces competition in the US from DraftKings, BetMGM and numerous other sports betting operators that spend lavishly on attracting new customers.

While Adams’ show covers primarily football and other mainstream sports from 11 am to noon Eastern Time each weekday, FanDuel TV still airs almost exclusively live and taped horse racing, a sport with a long tradition of betting.

FanDuel has also signed a licensing agreement with Sportradar to air more than 3,000 hours of live sports from overseas such as basketball from Australia, China, France and Germany. In addition, the company also has agreements with former NFL punter and sports media star Pat McAfee and The Ringer, the company that former ESPN star Bill Simmons founded in 2016 and sold four years later to Spotify for more than $200 million. FanDuel already has marketing deals with McAfee and The Ringer, but it would not reveal details of what types of shows McAfee and The Ringer will produce or how frequently those shows will air.

For now, people who watched TVG will not see much difference with the rebranded FanDuel TV, but Raffensperger hopes that the station will expand its reach by adding Adams and other high-profile sports media talent and airing events other than horse races. Much of the content will air on FanDuel+, an over-the-top streaming platform that’s free for people who have FanDuel accounts.

“There’s absolutely a good underpinning of, as we show horse racing, as we show really engaging conversational programming hosted by really great talent, as we have other live sports in the form of international basketball and others, we know that will increase your loyalty to FanDuel and your likelihood to bet with us when you bet,” Raffensperger said.

FanDuel will not pursue major streaming deals with established US professional leagues, as those are expensive and most are not available. Instead, it will look at niche sports in the US and in other countries. In some deals, the sports leagues and/or teams will share in the revenue if viewers bet on the games using the FanDuel app or website.

“We’re focused on tertiary sports that maybe aren’t able to find traditional distribution through traditional media companies,” said Raffensperger, who was promoted to FanDuel’s chief commercial officer in July. “FanDuel offers, I think, a really unique opportunity to get your sport in front of millions of really engaged sports fans and do really creative deals where we structure things in a way that we share similarly on the upside of the growth of that sport from a betting perspective.”

Raffensperger added that Flutter expects the FanDuel TV brand will also help drive an increase in sponsorship and partnership revenues.

“Companies are looking to reach our audience of primarily young, affluent, tech-savvy men,” Raffensperger said. “It’s a very attractive demographic that they have historically reached through free to play games or branded bets or branded odds boosts…FanDuel TV represents just a new platform for them to expand that promotional relationship with us and reach our audience in a different way.”

Patrick Crakes, a former Fox Sports programming executive who now runs his own consulting company, said that the rebranding makes sense for Flutter as it looks to expand its betting market share.

“I think it’s logical,” Crakes said. “It’s taking a profitable business (in TVG) and getting marketing out of it by rebranding it. And then in the larger picture, (FanDuel) is a worldwide company that’s profitable already. They’ re in a great position to grow their business, and as gaming gets overextended, roll up (other sports betting operators).”

For Adams, joining FanDuel TV provided an opportunity to work in somewhat of a startup environment. It reminds her of about a decade ago when she was one of the first hosts for SiriusXM’s fantasy sports station and six years ago when she helped launch “Good Morning Football.”

Adams said FanDuel has given her the flexibility to work on potential projects with NFL Media and other sports media entities while working on her daily show. But for now, she is focusing on improving the show and evaluating what is and is not working.

“What (Good Morning Football) looked on day one, it did not look like on day 30,” Adams said in an interview earlier this month. “There’s something about that process I really like. In six years on Good Morning Football, I felt really good about what I did. I’m really, really proud of it. I loved it so much, but I’m really excited about what’s going on with FanDuel. It’s similar in that way. I’m no pioneer, but I’m often not an idiot. I see where sports are going, and I’m curious about it.”