With College Football in Jeopardy, Sports-Betting Stocks Tumble
With College Football in Jeopardy, Sports-Betting Stocks Tumble
(Bloomberg) -- Shares of sports-betting companies tumbled on Monday, hurt by the growing likelihood that more big college-football conferences will cancel their seasons.
DraftKings Inc. fell as much as 9.6%, while Penn National Gaming Inc. tumbled 7.7%. Flutter Entertainment Plc, William Hill Plc and other stocks also slipped.
Sports-talk host Dan Patrick said on his show that the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences will cancel their fall football seasons on Tuesday, and other major conferences are “on the fence.” The Mid-American Conference was the first big college-football conference to scrub its season on Saturday, citing concerns over the ongoing pandemic.
College football is one of the most popular sports for bettors at sites like DraftKings, especially in the U.S. Rosenblatt Securities Inc. analyst Bernie McTernan said earlier that DraftKings could probably weather a cancellation of the season, thanks to its estimated $1.1 billion cash balance.
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