As previously featured on Gambling Insider, DraftKings and FanDuel were among the companies that were also interested in purchasing The Athletic.
The deal is valued at around $550m and it should close in the first quarter of 2022.
The two companies had discussed a deal earlier this year, but the negotiations failed because The Athletic considered the price offered to be too low.
After that, the merchant banking firm Liontree was hired to run a formal process, which resulted in a lift of the purchase price for The Athletic.
The New York Times then expressed interest in the sports news subscription because it would expand its subscriber base.
As per the deal, The Athletic will continue to operate as a standalone site.
Meredith Kopit Levien, New York Times Company CEO, told investors that The Atheltic will be initially offered as a separate subscription and eventually it would become part of a “broader Times bundle.”
She added that, while the New YorkTimes offers “sports coverage for a general-interest audience”, the new purchase would give readers a more extensive coverage of sports teams and leagues.
The newspaper had previously set a goal to reach 10 million print and digital subscribers by 2025.
After the purchase announcement, Levien added that now the company reaches for “a goal meaningfully larger than 10 million subscriptions and believe The Athletic will enable us to expand our addressable market of potential subscribers.”
The Athletic reported it had hit one million subscribers in late 2020 and in December 2021 the number amounted to 1.2 million.
