FanDuel Parent Shuttering 2 Atlanta Offices After Losing Braves Broadcasting Rights
The parent company of sports betting platform FanDuel is laying off 74 Atlanta-area employees and shutting down two offices, two weeks after a host of Major League Baseball teams shed their broadcasting agreement with the operator.
Main Street Sports Group, the parent company of broadcaster FanDuel Sports Network, said in a letter to state officials that it was closing its facilities in Colony Square in Midtown and at 3845 Pleasantdale Road, a 129K SF building in Doraville.
It wasn't immediately clear how much Main Street leased in each building. The 335K SF 100 Colony Square tower that FanDuel Sports Network had office space in is marketing up to 60K SF, with the biggest available block reaching about 15K SF.
In its Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letter posted on the Technical College System of Georgia, Main Street said the action was expected to be permanent, with layoffs over the course of 14 days beginning April 14. Affected positions include the vice president of finance, editors, director of linear ad systems and producers.
A source familiar with the layoffs told Bisnow they will not impact FanDuel’s fantasy sports betting technology hub operation at Ponce City Market, which is a separate business from FanDuel Sports Network. FanDuel opened a 68K SF facility at the iconic adaptive reuse project in the Old Fourth Ward in 2022.
Main Street has struggled to find a buyer or financial partner for its cash-strapped FanDuel Sports Network and failed to make scheduled rights payments in December, CBS News reported. On Feb. 3, the Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays announced they were parting with the network to allow MLB itself to broadcast their games, The Athletic reported.
The Atlanta Braves also parted ways with FanDuel Sports Network in January but have yet to announce a new local broadcasting arrangement for their games, according to CBS.
Once known as Diamond Sports Group, Main Street fell into bankruptcy in March 2023 with $9B in debt, ESPN reported. While it emerged from bankruptcy 22 months later, it missed a payment in December to the Cardinals as it scrambled to strike a deal with British sports entertainment platform DAZN, according to ESPN. ESPN reported that talks with DAZN “eventually disintegrated.”
