Multiple reports emerged Monday that US market contender FanDuel will move its online betting and casino products onto Scientific Games technology.
Legal Sports Report sources indicate, however, that FanDuel might not be leaving its current technology partners anytime soon.
According to one report, a deal between Scientific Games and FanDuel could be announced this week at the ICE gaming conference in London. The market reacted accordingly to a potential partnership between the two gaming giants, with Scientific Games shares up 8% at the time of writing.
$SGMS $FLTR Bloomberg: “FanDuel Picks Scientific Games for Sports Betting Tech”
Article does not specify what exactly FD is using SGMS for and does not mention any related players like $GAN.Lhttps://t.co/JdszYL9UNQ
— Rational Research (@RationalResear) February 3, 2020
Not so fast on Scientific Games, FanDuel deal
However, LSR sources played down the likelihood of any such platform deal in the immediate future. Multiple sources said today’s reports cannot be verified at this time.
Scientific Games responded to this report Tuesday with a statement:
Scientific Games Corporation confirms it has expanded its existing partnership with Flutter Entertainment to cover online and mobile sports betting and iGaming content offering with FanDuel in the United States. OpenBet has been at the core of Flutter’s proprietary sports platform for over a decade in Europe and we look forward to expanding this partnership to the U.S. market.
Contacted about this carefully worded statement, a FanDuel representative declined comment.
Looking around at options
It’s understood FanDuel has indeed looked into other potential technology partners, including the Scientific Games OpenBet platform.
SB’s PlayTech was understood to be another potential partner, but sources said no announcement is imminent and it was “business as usual” for FanDuel and its current technology partners.
GAN provides FanDuel’s back-end platform, with IGT providing the sportsbook. FD owner Paddy Power and Betfair use some OpenBet technology in Europe. One source suggested that Scientific Games could be overstating the breadth of the expansion with regard to the US market.
An IGT spokesperson provided a statement in response to the reports:
IGT maintains a successful and productive partnership with FanDuel for the U.S. sports betting market across six states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Indiana and West Virginia. We look forward to working with FanDuel on the sports betting opportunities of today and the future.
Does FD need a new tech partner in the US?
While FanDuel is a clear US market leader at this point, with near 50% share in Pennsylvania and New Jersey sports betting, it has faced some teething issues. The sportsbook has seen several outages around major sporting events in recent months and the company could be looking for a more stable platform.
FanDuel and GAN declined comment on initial reports. The companies could be forced to issue statements this week if share prices are affected by the reports.
The effect of potentially premature or erroneous reporting on the companies’ stock already appears tangible and potentially significant.
