Bally’s Buys Out Monkey Knife Fight for $90 Million

Bally’s Buys Monkey Knife Fight

It became official on Wednesday that the Vegas gambling giant, Bally’s, had purchased the daily fantasy platform of Monkey Knife Fight. The purchase was worth $90 million and was completed through stock. This is a massive purchase as Money Knife Fight was really in its own league when it came to daily fantasy sports, as it offered it in such a unique way.

This acquisition adds to a long list of purchases and partnerships that Bally’s has made over the past six months. Purchases that include becoming the official face of Sinclair Broadcast Group in an attempt to reach dozens of regional sports channels to promote its sports wagering brand. Bally’s is also currently in advanced talks to buy out a midsize betting firm in Bet.Works. This is a team that works on the backend of betting software.

What is MKF?

Monkey Knife Fight is a daily fantasy sports platform, but it is not in any way traditional. Monkey Knife Fight, in a lot of ways, gives users options to play games that somewhat resemble sports betting. This includes choosing the over/under on certain stats for players or groups of players for games.

Monkey Knife Fight does not offer the traditional salary lineup contests that you come to expect on most daily fantasy sports platforms. This had pushed Monkey Knife Fight into almost its own fantasy sports category and was seeing decent success.

Why Did Bally’s Purchase Monkey Knife Fight?

Currently, due to its unique model, Monkey Knife Fight is only available in 37 states. However, this is significantly larger than the number of states that have legalized sports betting. Meaning that Bally’s can work on building customer bases before sports betting goes live, a play out of both DraftKings’ and FanDuel’s betting models, as both offer daily fantasy sports in 43 states.

This also allows Bally’s to eventually be a one-stop-shop for customers’ sports gaming needs. There is a load of crossover for fantasy sports and betting. Many bettors drift to websites and organizations that can provide an all-in-one experience to limit down applications, websites, and accounts needed.

DraftKings and FanDuel, whose model Bally’s is seemingly copying, have both seen massive success throughout all states that offer sports betting. Bally’s is hoping that as the wave of legalized sports betting covers America, it can capitalize on similar success with its combination of Money Knife Fight and mobile betting.

The only issue I foresee with this move is that Monkey Knife Fight is not a traditional daily fantasy platform. If you have the option to bet on sports, it somewhat makes MKF obsolete as you can wager on similar things in a much easier and more traditional way. Bally’s will need to expand MKF to include games and contests that compete with FanDuel and DraftKings if it truly hopes to see similar success.

Bally’s is making massive moves and is a company that will be on everyone’s radar the next couple of years. It will be part of the crowded sports wagering market in America, hoping to distance itself away from the competition.