FanDuel chooses Scientific Games to power US sports betting and iGaming

FanDuel picked Scientific Games to provide the technology for its sports-wagering and online-casino businesses in the U.S. as legalized betting expands across the country.

Scientific Games confirmed in a statement Tuesday that 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,” the company said.

The news sent shares of Scientific Games Corp., controlled by billionaire Ronald Perelman, up 8.2% to $26.87 in New York, the biggest gain since November. That was enough to push the stock into positive territory for the year.

The company will provide the betting platform in current states where FanDuel takes wagers and in new ones that come online, according to a person familiar with the terms cited by Bloomberg who asked not to be identified. The supplier already provides similar services to Flutter in Europe.

Las Vegas-based Scientific Games is benefiting from its $631 million purchase two years ago of NYX Gaming, a sports-betting technology provider. FanDuel has other suppliers, including GAN, which provides player account-management systems, and International Game Technology (IGT), which helps handle sports betting at the Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey.

Fourteen states now have active sports-betting businesses, and seven more have authorized such wagers but not yet put them in operation. The growing list of states approving sports bets led Morgan Stanley to raise its forecast for the industry in November. The investment bank now estimates the U.S. sports-betting market will reach $7 billion by 2025, up from an earlier forecast of $5 billion.