FanDuel Sports Network (formerly Bally Sports) was a group of regional sports networks in the United States owned by Main Street Sports Group (formerly Diamond Sports Group). The networks carried regional broadcasts of sporting events from various professional, collegiate, and high school sports teams. Through its owned-and-operated networks and several other affiliates, its programming was available to all or part of at least 33 states.
The networks were known as Fox Sports Networks and operated by News Corporation for most of their existence. They were acquired by Diamond Sports from the Walt Disney Company in 2019. After the acquisition, Diamond sold naming rights to the channels to casino operator Bally's Corporation, resulting in their relaunch as Bally Sports on March 31, 2021. In 2023, Diamond Sports Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection; during the bankruptcy, the company began to lose some of its sports rights to competing broadcast television, streaming, and part-time "direct-to-distributor" operations.
In October 2024, Diamond rebranded the channels as FanDuel Sports Network. Diamond Sports Group exited bankruptcy, and rebranded as Main Street Sports Group, on January 2, 2025. By January 2026, Main Street suffered from more financial difficulties, with unsuccessful attempts to sell the company to DAZN, and the nine Major League Baseball teams under contract with Main Street terminating their agreements due to missed rights payments.
In February 2026, the company began to issue notices of dismissals and closures under the WARN Act. The following month, the Los Angeles Angels announced an agreement to buy out Main Street's ownership in the West channel In April 2026, continuing it as a team-owned RSN. Main Street confirmed that it would begin to close FDSN following the conclusions of the 2025–2026 NBA and NHL seasons; with the final live FDSN-produced sporting event being an NHL playoff game on April 30. Since then, some television providers had removed the channels from their lineups.
On September 30, 2026, FDSN ceased all operations.
History
Beginnings
The networks of FanDuel Sports Network originate from several of the networks dating to the 1980s and 1990s, as affiliates of the Prime Network (and to a lesser degree SportsChannel). In 1996, News Corporation and Liberty Media (the owner of Prime Network) announced that the Prime Sports networks would be rebranded under the new "Fox Sports Net" brand; the Prime Sports-branded affiliates were relaunched as Fox Sports Net on November 1, 1996. In 1997, News Corp and Liberty Media also purchased a 40% stake in Cablevision/NBC's SportsChannel networks which led those networks being rebranded as part of Fox Sports Net in early 1998 and bringing the total number of owned or affiliate networks to 18. In the years that followed, a series of other acquisitions and launches of new networks (along with a few closures) resulted in 22 owned and operated networks.
Acquisition by Diamond Sports Group from Disney On December 14, 2017, the Walt Disney Company announced their intent to acquire 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion after the spin-off of certain businesses into a new entity (Fox Corporation). While the acquisition was originally slated to include Fox Sports' regional operations (which presumably would have been realigned with Disney's ESPN division), the Justice Department ordered that they be divested within 90 days of the completion of the acquisition due to the concentration of the market that ESPN would hold.
Sinclair Broadcast Group was mentioned as the most likely buyer for the other FSN networks, but would need the assistance of a private equity firm to help raise the cash needed for the purchase. The group's other sports properties included Stadium, a national sports network distributed via over-the-air digital television and internet streaming (in partnership with the Chicago White Sox's investment arm Silver Chalice), Tennis Channel, as well as Marquee, a then-upcoming RSN devoted to the Chicago Cubs.
On May 3, Sinclair announced that, via its subsidiary Diamond Sports Group, it had agreed to purchase the networks for $10.6 billion, pending regulatory approval. At the same time, it was also revealed that Allen Media Group would hold an equity stake in the company and serve as a "content partner". At the time the acquisition, FSN held exclusive broadcasting rights to 42 professional teams (including 16 National Basketball Association teams, 14 Major League Baseball teams, and 12 National Hockey League teams), and the channels collectively generated $3.8 billion in 2018, across nearly 75 million subscribers.
The sale was completed on August 22, 2019, and included 21 of the 22 networks. The networks continued to temporarily use the Fox Sports branding under a transitional license agreement with Fox Corporation; Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley stated that there were plans to eventually rebrand them under either a new name or to "partner with a brand that wants more exposure". There were also plans to increase non-event programming and emphasize sports betting in its programming.
Due to a clause in the original sale, Yankee Global Enterprises had a right of first refusal to purchase Fox's share in YES Network. On August 29, 2019, an investor group including the Yankees, Sinclair, Amazon, and Blackstone purchased Disney's 80% stake in the network for $3.47 billion. Sinclair continued to hold a 20% share of the network.
FuboTV removed the channels in January 2020, and YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV followed in October 2020. On November 4, 2020, Sinclair took a $4.23 billion write-down on the FSN purchase, citing "goodwill and definite-lived intangible assets, and $13 million of non-recurring costs for transaction, COVID, legal, litigation, and regulatory costs."
Rebranding as Bally Sports On November 17, 2020, it was reported by Sportico that Sinclair was considering rebranding the networks via a naming rights agreement, and was reportedly in talks with multiple companies involved in sports betting. The next day, Sinclair announced that it had entered into an agreement with casino operator Bally's Corporation to acquire the naming rights under a ten-year deal. This agreement included integration of Bally's content on the channels and other Sinclair properties (including its television stations, Stadium, and Tennis Channel), and a warrant giving Sinclair the option to acquire a 14.9% stake in Bally's Corporation, and up to 24.9% if performance criteria were met.
On January 27, 2021, Sinclair announced that the networks would be rebranded as Bally Sports on March 31. Fox Sports Carolinas and Fox Sports Tennessee were discontinued, with any unique sports programming moved to the Bally Sports South and Southeast channels. To better reflect their target markets, Prime Ticket and SportsTime Ohio were also rebranded as Bally Sports SoCal and Bally Sports Great Lakes, respectively.
In preparation for the rebrand, new studio sets were constructed at all of FSN's outlets, while Drive Studio produced a new on-air graphics package built upon its existing work for Marquee. On-air graphics feature a new consistent score bug in the bottom-left of the screen, which is combined into the ticker; the ticker area can also be used to display in-game statistics. Executive vice president Michael Connelly explained that the configuration was designed to eventually allow for the integration of sports betting-related information such as lines and props.
On Opening Day, the newly rebranded channels aired a joint special, Bally Sports Big Opening Day. It was produced by Stadium, hosted by Michael Kim, Bally Sports SoCal's Kristina Pink and Bally Sports Southeast's Eric Collins, and featured coverage of teams and events across Bally Sports and Sinclair's sports networks.
On May 2, 2022, Diamond Sports Group assembled a board of five directors, consisting of Bob Whitsitt, Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley, Randy Freer, a former Fox Sports/Hulu executive, Mary Ann Turcke, a former COO of the NFL, and David Preschlack (previously President of the NBC Sports Regional Networks); Preschlack would be elected CEO of Diamond on December 5.
On June 23, 2022, Bally Sports soft-launched a direct-to-consumer service known as Bally Sports+ in selected markets. It launched nationally in the remainder of the networks on September 26.
On December 4, 2022, Diamond Sports Group's board voted to block the Sinclair Broadcast Group from operating Diamond and its regional sports networks.
Bankruptcy and spin-off On February 15, 2023, Diamond Sports Group, the owner of Bally Sports, failed to make a $140 million interest payment, instead opting for a 30-day grace period to make the payment. On March 14, 2023, Diamond Sports Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection; its restructuring plan included a proposal for the company to be separated from the Sinclair Broadcast Group into a standalone company. Diamond's first-lien lenders would not be affected as part of the restructuring support agreement, but other creditors planned to convert their debt into equity.
On March 20, 2023, Steve Rosenberg resigned as president of Diamond Sports Group, and chief financial officer David DeVoe was appointed to the role of COO.
On April 28, 2023, the Phoenix Suns of the NBA and Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) announced they had signed a five-year agreement with Gray Media to replace Bally Sports Arizona as its local television partners. After the announcement, Diamond Sports Group accused the team of breaching its contract and bankruptcy law, stating that the team was making an "improper effort" to "change their broadcasting partner without permitting Diamond to exercise our contractual rights." In response, Suns CEO Josh Bartlestein stated that plans with their deal would continue, describing Diamond's position as "totally inaccurate". On May 10, 2023, the bankruptcy judge voided the Suns contract with Gray, ruling that the Suns violated Diamond's contractual right of first refusal. He ordered the parties into arbitration. The Phoenix Mercury's deal was not affected. On July 14, 2023, the deal became official when Diamond declined to match Gray's contract offer.
Diamond missed a rights payment to the San Diego Padres in mid-March 2023, which was eventually made on March 29. On May 31, 2023, Diamond missed a second payment to the team; as Bally Sports San Diego was a joint venture between the Padres and Diamond, it was technically not in bankruptcy, and this missed payment did not have the same bankruptcy protections that Diamond's other missed payments had. As a result, the Padres' media rights were returned to Major League Baseball effective immediately, and the team became the first move its regional games to the league's new in-house broadcasting unit MLB Local Media.
On June 1, 2023, after a two-day-long hearing, the bankruptcy judge ordered Diamond to pay the other Major League Baseball teams their missed payments in full within five days. On June 14, 2023, Diamond rejected its contract with Raycom Sports to distribute a package of Atlantic Coast Conference games, freeing Raycom to sell the package to other networks. A month later, Raycom announced that The CW had acquired the rights.
On June 22, 2023, Diamond announced its intention to reject its contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks on June 30, 2023. Diamond and the Arizona Diamondbacks later released a joint statement delaying the hearing and agreeing to continue Diamond's broadcast of Diamondbacks' games. The contract was officially rejected on July 18. As with the Padres, the team moved to MLB Local Media effective immediately.