Dan Le Batard Show Lands A Major New Deal

Starting in June or by early July, DraftKings, the daily fantasy sports and sports betting operator, will distribute the Dan Le Batard Show on any and all platforms including radio, television, podcast and social media. The Miami Herald was told DraftKings is spending about $40 million in a three-year deal. The Wall Street Journal reported the deal as $50 million.

Siris XM, Peacock and iHeart Radio were among a half dozen entities in a bidding war to land the Le Batard Show. An industry source said Sirius was pushing hard, offering tens of millions in money and pitching the Le Batard Show as the sports heir to that network’s megapopular Howard Stern Show.

Sirius XM was a tempting offer because of Le Batard’s oft-stated love of live radio, but he did not want a situation that would have put his listeners behind a paywall or force them to subscribe to listen.

“We didn’t want to do that to our listeners,” Le Batard told the Miami Herald. “The thing that I chose was freedom. Every time I’ve negotiated anywhere was for freedom, not money.”

“This allows Meadowlark to be profitable from the start, and have total freedom to do what we want,” he said. “We can go forward and appear everywhere. We can make partnerships anywhere we want. We don’t have any corporate overlord. Our partner is our sponsor and what they are sponsoring is our freedom.

“This is the biggest win in the history of our show. We just cashed a bet we made on ourselves and our audience,” Le Batard said. “While talking to traditional media partners, we quickly realized we are the traditional media partner. DraftKings is literally banking on us helping them change how all this is done. They’re sponsors in the purest supporting sense. They’re financially funding our fight for freedom, rewarding us for leaving the corporate confines.”

The new-era Dan Le Batard Show With Stugotz — with DraftKings as title sponsor — will continue for the next several weeks to be available as a podcast — as it has been since Le Batard and ESPN mutually ended their long association on Jan. 4. Beginning this summer the show is expected to be televised on platforms such as YouTube, Twitch and DraftKings’ own channel, which it is starting.

DraftKings will distribute all programs in the Le Batard And Friends network, including the flagship show with Dan, Jon Weiner (Stugotz) and the Shipping Container, along with Stupodity, the Jim Brockmire Show, Mystery Crate and others. DraftKings will be responsible for finding partners and platforms on satellite and terrestrial radio, TV and digital and social channels.

“We’re thrilled to find a partner in DraftKings that shares our vision to continue to grow Dan Le Batard’s already wildly popular network of shows,” said Skipper, the Meadowlark CEO. “We’ll be able to reach the largest possible audience and provide incredible value to DraftKings.”

DraftKings calls the partnership with Meadowlark “a first-of-its-kind content distribution, monetization and sponsorship agreement.”