After a series of purchases in the past year, The Walt Disney Company conducted their strangest purchase yet, taking on a piece of daily fantasy sports and sportsbetting group DraftKings.
The move comes after the mouse merged with 21st Century Fox with last year. Fox had bought into DraftKings three years ago for $160 million, and the operation has scaled up since that time. Disney owns sports media company ESPN, and with the legalization of sportsbetting in large states, owning a stake in DraftKings makes sense.
Disney has been notoriously anti-gambling in the past, pulling purchased brands like Marvel from slot licensing deals. As recently as three months ago company CEO Bob Iger said, "I don't see The Walt Disney Company, certainly in the near term, getting involved in the business of gambling, in effect, by facilitating gambling in any way."
It's not known if Disney will be participating in the business of DraftKings, or if they'll simply hold onto the company to rake in revenues.
Comments
Wow...if that's not a hypocrisy in the highest existing form I don't know what it is then.
The biggest moralist and anti gambling company will be now involved in the gambling business...there's some principles for sale out there...going really cheap right now.