Fox Sports Midwest intends to become a bookie joint

Sinclair and Bally’s expect revenue in the U.S. from online betting sources to increase from $1 billion in 2019 to $12 billion by 2025, eventually reaching $50 billion. The alliance will help those companies “capture a significant share” of that market, Bally’s president and CEO George Papanier said Thursday.

That is a key reason for the Sinclair-Bally’s marriage.

“This arrangement represents an opportunity to revolutionize the U.S. sports betting, gaming and media industries,” Bally’s chairman Soo Kim said in a statement. This will be “. . . positioning Bally’s to become one of the top U.S. sports betting and IGaming operators.”

IGaming includes forms of online wagering in addition to sports betting, such as casino games.

Ripley, Sinclair’s president and CEO said, in a statement, that the company has been pointing toward cashing in the growing sports-betting market for some time, and that was accentuated with the addition of the regional sports networks last year when they were purchased from Disney.

“We have been working on developing an innovative experience that changes the way people think about and view live sports across all our platforms,” he said. “Bally’s, with its strong brand name, premier sportsbook technology platform and expansive market access, is the perfect partner to help us change the paradigm of sports viewing across all our assets. . . . Consumers of live sports in the future can look forward to a more dynamic and engaging sports viewing experience. . . . This partnership perfectly positions our sports portfolio to fully capitalize on changing audience behavior.”