Yahoo Sports Could Merge With Betting Companies

Apollo Global Management, the private equity firm that acquired Yahoo from Verizon for $5 billion last year, is considering merging the company with a sports betting brand.

Australia's PointsBet is one of the companies under consideration.  They already have a footprint in such states as New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Colorado.

Yahoo was an early provider of fantasy sports and has millions of customers that could potentially cross over to sports gambling.

All talks at this stage are early, and no deal is imminent.  Spokespeople for Yahoo, Apollo and PointsBet declined to comment.

The sports-betting industry has slumped in recent months as a swath of companies have made customer acquisition increasingly expensive through significant marketing costs and promotional offers.

Short seller Jim Chanos told CNBC in December he has taken a short position in DraftKings because of its “insane” spending on marketing.

“You can believe in sports betting ... but this business model is flawed,” Chanos said.

- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com