Thousands of viewers familiar with the Fox Sports regional brand will be blindsided this week when the channels become a sponsorship title. Earlier this year Sinclair Broadcasting cut a deal with Bally that will renams the platform. In 2019 Sinclair bought the FOX Sports regional networks from Disney and put the naming rights up for sale. Not to be confused with a fitness club chain that went belly up in the late 2000s, Bally represents a multi-billion dollar sports gaming platform.. Bally recently completed a sale to acquire Monkey Knife Fight, a smaller daily fantasy operation. The change comes in conjunction with the 2021 Major League Baseball regular season opening. The watermark will be visible throughout telecasts, the same as all network logos. The change comes as gambling and fantasy sports angles and references become prevalent in game presentations. One can wonder if a few years down the road brands such as ABC, NBC, CBS and ESPN become something like Verizon Entertainment or the Hyundai Sports Network. As Paul Lukas would say, "For fuck's sake.." We are truly taking the final steps before plunging into a thousand years of darkness.
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