Diamond Sports Group is officially on the verge of a naming and branding rights agreement with a third party -- which sources said is FanDuel -- according to a filing Monday in U.S. bankruptcy court.
As part of its amended reorganization plan, Diamond wrote that the new naming rights deal will enable its new partner to "purchase up to a single-digit percentage of equity" in Diamond should it emerge from bankruptcy and "incentivize the naming rights partner to use its best efforts to broaden the Debtors’ subscriber base." That would give FanDuel an "opportunity to co-invest in the Debtors’ reorganized business."
Monday’s filing clarified again that, at an upcoming Nov. 14 court hearing, Diamond should finally learn whether its amended reorganization plan is viable after an 18-month process. Diamond also reconfirmed that if it does not emerge from bankruptcy by Dec. 16, contracts with Diamond’s NBA and NHL teams will be null and void following the 2024-25 season.
Sources close to Diamond insist their plan is to be solvent beyond these NBA and NHL seasons, and also in Monday’s filing, reiterated that it is still negotiating with Amazon on a "go-forward commercial agreement" that would put Diamond’s NBA and NHL teams on Prime Video for streaming purposes, along with other digital entities.
Monday’s filing also detailed why Amazon pulled back its original $115M offer to invest in Diamond, the reason being that Diamond’s reorganization plan wasn’t finalized and approved by an Aug. 5, 2024 deadline. FanDuel’s impending investment in Diamond is not thought to be as lucrative as Amazon’s would have been, considering Amazon also had the option of injecting another $50M in Diamond -- for a total of $165M and a 25% overall stake in Diamond’s RSN business.
That means that as of Jan. of 2024, Diamond’s valuation was $860M. According to its court filing this week, Diamond’s liquidation value is now about $675M -- a precipitous fall from when Sinclair first purchased the consortium of RSNs for $9.6B.
