Flutter Entertainment struck an agreement with Boyd Gaming to acquire the final 5% stake in sportsbook operator FanDuel it does not already own, Boyd and FanDuel confirmed Thursday.
The $1.55 billion pact values FanDuel at $31 billion, Flutter said. The deal also includes $205 million attributable to the revision of various existing commercial terms, according to Flutter, bringing the total value of the transaction to $1.76 billion. Flutter has a market cap of about $51 billion.
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2025, subject to regulatory approvals, Boyd wrote in a press release. The companies will continue to partner on new “market-access agreements” through 2038.
“The agreements will also provide Boyd with a fixed fee per state from FanDuel’s mobile sports-betting operations in Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana and Pennsylvania, as well as FanDuel’s online casino operations in Pennsylvania, upon the close of this transaction,” Boyd wrote. “FanDuel will also continue to operate Boyd’s retail sportsbooks outside of Nevada through mid-2026, after which time Boyd will assume responsibility for these operations.”
The deal, if approved by regulators, will give Flutter full ownership of FanDuel. But Fox Corporation has an option to gain an 18.6% stake well below market value, and CEO Lachlan Murdoch said last September he intends to exercise it. At the time, Murdoch said Goldman Sachs analysts valued FanDuel at $35 billion.
Fox obtained its FanDuel purchase option through Flutter’s acquisition of The Stars Group, which turned Fox’s option in The Stars Group into one for FanDuel.
In 2020, Flutter added a 37% stake in FanDuel at a valuation of $11.2 billion—well below the $31 billion mark from this week.
Flutter stock held steady Thursday, up 1.15% to $289.58 a share. Boyd briefly spiked from $84 per share to more than $86 before closing at $85.37—a 1.5% gain.
(This has been updated to reflect numbers from FanDuel and Boyd on the purchase price and valuation, as well as a statement from Boyd’s press release.)
