Fubo (NYSE: FUBO) have ended their mobile sportsbook operations, the company announced in a press release on Monday.
The live-TV streaming company had registered total losses of about $100 million in Q3 of this year.
The company lost about $200,000 from Fubo Sportsbook in Q2 2022.
The news comes roughly two months after Fubo put out feelers for prospective buyers of their sportsbook business.
While multiple parties expressed interest in the business, none of these opportunities would have allowed Fubo to lower its funding requirements and generate sufficient returns to shareholders," the company said in a statement.
The company had said earlier this year that they expected to be approved in New Jersey in time for the 2022 NFL season. Fubo had also applied for an online sports betting license in Ohio, which is due to launch mobile gaming in 2023.
This is the first online sportsbook closure since Twinspires, which folded in February after reporting $32 million in losses from its sports betting venture in 2021.
Fubo bought existing sportsbook Vigtory for an undisclosed amount in 2021 and used its infrastructure to launch under the Fubo brand name. But it was too late to the party.
Fubo's failures in the space will serve as a case study for other prospective companies.
Fanatics, a sports manufacturing behemoth, may also have to resort to buying out an existing sportsbook when it makes its foray into the mobile betting space.
The company — which raised $1.5 billion at a $27 billion evaluation in March — has plans to launch a sportsbook by the 2023 NFL season. While Fanatics has far more free-flowing capital at its disposal compared to Fubo, without any pending licenses, it's unclear how logistically possible an August 2023 launch in 15 to 20 states really is.
Industry experts have speculated that Fanatics may have to buy a sportsbook with existing, requisite market share in order to attain their lofty ambitions of competing with the likes of FanDuel and DraftKings.
