Musburger Media Takes VSiN Back After a $5.8 Million Loss

Musburger Media bought VSiN, the Vegas Sports Information Network, back from DraftKings on July 22, 2024. The sportsbook had paid $70 million in 2021, then recorded a $5.8 million accounting loss when it let the newsroom go.

Brian Musburger and Bill Adee, the co-founders who launched the Las Vegas betting network in 2017, took the keys again and sold independence as the product. DraftKings said it would keep buying ads. A year later the same shows were on SiriusXM and on FanDuel Sports Network.

A $5.8 Million Loss After a $70 Million Purchase

DraftKings acquired VSiN in March 2021 in its first major deal as a public company, with sportsbooks then live in 14 states. Jason Robins, the co-founder and chief executive, said the network made “authentic and credible content that resonates with sports bettors at every level.”

The original release did not print a price. Later company filings put the check at $70 million in cash and stock. On July 22, 2024, Musburger Media announced it had bought the network back. A VSiN spokesperson declined to share terms and told people to watch for more news in the coming weeks. That cash figure never landed in a press release.

It showed up in DraftKings’ 2024 annual report. The company listed a $5.8 million loss on the sale of Vegas Sports Information Network, LLC, among other items in other loss. That number is an accounting hit against carrying value after years on the books, not a public sale price, and it is the only figure DraftKings has put on the unwind.

THE 2021 BUY VERSUS THE 2024 EXIT

Robins had pitched the 2021 deal as a way to teach new bettors and to fill programming slots with media partners. Matt Kalish, then president of DraftKings North America, called it a jump-start for content. The 2024 filing treats the same asset as a small line in other loss.

Musburger and Adee Take the Keys Again

Brian Musburger, nephew of longtime sportscaster Brent Musburger, founded VSiN with Adee, a former Chicago newspaper editor. Brent left ESPN in 2017 to become the on-air marquee. Brian ran the company. DraftKings had said it would leave that team in place and fold Las Vegas staff into a 2,600-person workforce.

The buyback put the same two names back on the masthead. Musburger used the announcement to restore the word the 2021 deal had tried to rent.

While a lot has changed in the sports betting industry over the past three-and-a-half years, our original vision for VSiN still holds and we are committed to delivering the most credible, independent information and analysis sports bettors can find anywhere.

Brian Musburger, co-founder, VSiN statement, July 22, 2024

He thanked DraftKings and said the two sides would keep collaborating. In a later interview he was blunter: a media company functions better when it is independent. Bettors who can tell a moneyline from a spread, he argued, notice when one book owns the microphone.

The network posted the sale itself that Monday.

🚨 VSiN, The Sports Betting Network was purchased today by Musburger Media from DraftKings Inc.https://t.co/9OQye9W8Lp pic.twitter.com/31dg6qVEf6

— VSiN (@VSiNLive) July 22, 2024

Viewers were told to expect no break in shows or news. The product on the air did not change that week. The sales sheet did. VSiN could pitch every sportsbook again, including the one that had just sold it.

The Ads Were Always the Asset DraftKings Wanted

Stephanie Sherman, DraftKings’ chief marketing officer, did not talk about journalism. She talked about a budget.

DraftKings continues to optimize its investments in content and media to align with the most critical areas and needs of our business strategy, objectives, and goals. We want to thank Brian, Bill, and the entire team at VSiN for a great relationship, and we look forward to continuing to advertise on the network.

Stephanie Sherman, chief marketing officer, DraftKings, July 22, 2024

That sentence is the deal in plain language. DraftKings still wanted the audience. It did not want to own the newsroom that reached it.

WHAT THE 2021 BUY WAS SUPPOSED TO DELIVER

• Customer growth: DraftKings said it acquired most customers through media buys and wanted VSiN to make content that could add users.
• Partner inventory: The sportsbook wanted programming it could offer regional sports networks in future carriage talks.
• Odds on the air: The plan included a preferred marketing tie, with DraftKings numbers used during broadcasts, while the staff kept a formal editorial-independence line.
• A Vegas studio: Production already sat at Circa downtown and at South Point, inside real sportsbooks, which the buyer kept in place.

Owning those things created a split the ads never had. Sharp bettors treat a house-owned handicap show as a commercial. Casual bettors were the customer DraftKings actually wanted. Sherman’s line, and the later Barstool ad partnership DraftKings signed after Portnoy’s noncompetes lapsed, point the same way: pay for reach, do not buy the studio.

VSiN still reads DraftKings betting splits on air and still books DraftKings guests. Independence did not mean freezing out the old parent. It meant the morning show could also live on a rival’s regional sports networks.

What Changed Once DraftKings Let Go

Musburger said the first job after the closing was more partnerships and more distribution. The next 13 months put that on a calendar.

THE FIRST YEAR OF INDEPENDENCE

1. July 22, 2024: Musburger Media closes the buyback. DraftKings stays on the rate card.
2. January 6, 2025: “VSiN Live on Mad Dog Sports Radio,” hosted by Patrick Meagher and Dustin Swedelson, debuts weeknights from 7 to 10 p.m. ET on Mad Dog Sports Radio.
3. January 17, 2025: VSiN’s stream returns as a 24/7 sports betting channel on SiriusXM, a platform it had used from 2017 through 2020, before the DraftKings years.
4. August 28, 2025: “VSiN By the Books,” with Dave Ross and former major-league pitcher Jensen Lewis, begins weekday mornings on FanDuel Sports Network from 7 to 10 a.m. ET, on the app and across nine regional nets.

Brian Musburger, by then president and chief business officer, called SiriusXM “a critical component of our expansion strategy.” Eric Spitz, SiriusXM’s vice president of sports programming, said demand for wagering content was still growing. Steve Cohen, VSiN’s executive vice president of talent and programming and a longtime SiriusXM hand, used the FanDuel Sports Network deal to claim a larger footprint.

FanDuel Sports Network is owned by Main Street Sports Group, the operator of the old Bally regional channels. The morning show does not run on FanDuel TV, which FanDuel operates on its own. The distinction matters: a DraftKings-owned VSiN was never going to be a comfortable fit on a FanDuel-branded RSN. An independent VSiN is inventory.

Norby Williamson, president of programming and production at Main Street Sports Group, said the hook was local fans and betting talk tied to the teams those channels already carry. That is the second-order result of the July 2024 closing. DraftKings optimized a content budget. VSiN leased the same hours to the other side of the duopoly’s television arm.

A $1 Barstool Exit Came First

PENN Entertainment handed Barstool Sports back to Dave Portnoy on August 8, 2023, for $1 plus noncompete terms and a claim on half of any later sale. PENN had spent about $551 million in total to own the company. The casino operator was clearing the brand so it could rebadge Barstool Sportsbook as ESPN Bet under a 10-year media deal.

Portnoy said he had underestimated how hard it was for Barstool to live inside a licensed gaming company, and that every step felt like one forward and two back, including license trouble tied to him. He also said he would never sell Barstool again. Within months of that $1 closing, Barstool was free to take sportsbook ads from more than one operator, and DraftKings later became a partner.

VSiN is not Barstool. It never had Portnoy’s regulator problem. It had a credibility problem that looks smaller on a spreadsheet and larger in a betting show. PENN paid a dollar and wrote off hundreds of millions because a media brand blew up a gaming license path. DraftKings paid an undisclosed sum, booked a $5.8 million loss, and kept a friendly ad relationship. Both parent companies decided the owned newsroom was the expensive part.

Kresimir Spajic, Betfred US chief executive, has said sports-betting media convergence is not working out as the industry first hoped. FanDuel still runs FanDuel TV. The VSiN case is narrower: the network that was supposed to be DraftKings’ in-house betting channel is now a supplier to FanDuel’s regional sports nets.

Circa, the Mint, and the Radio Stack

The factory did not move. VSiN still turns out 18+ hours of live linear betting content a day and a 24/7 stream, now from newsroom studios inside Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas and Circa Sports at The Mint Gaming Hall at Kentucky Downs. In 2021 the on-air list included Brent Musburger, former NFL executive Michael Lombardi, Gill Alexander of “Beating the Book,” and Pauly Howard and Mitch Moss of “Follow the Money.” Those names, and newer desks such as By the Books, still sit on the same clock.

WHERE THE HOURS GO

• Video partners: YouTube TV, Rogers Sportsnet, NESN, Marquee Sports Network, and other regional slots, plus the nine FanDuel Sports Network regions added in 2025.
• Audio: a dedicated iHeartRadio channel, TuneIn, more than 300 terrestrial stations, and the SiriusXM 24/7 channel plus the Mad Dog weeknight show.
• Digital: VSiN.com, the 24/7 stream, podcasts, and the VSiN Daily note that still walks Circa’s sportsbook floor.

On September 20, 2026, Adee was still in that building. He wrote that he had checked Sunday NFL money with Circa Sports operations chief Jeff Benson, down to which sides were attracting Circa action and how many Survivor entries had missed a deadline. The buyback did not turn VSiN into a different show. It turned the show into inventory that DraftKings could sponsor and FanDuel’s RSNs could carry in the same season.

That is the receipt on the $70 million experiment. DraftKings got out of the newsroom, kept the ads, and took a $5.8 million loss for the privilege. Musburger got the independent label back, then rented the same hours to SiriusXM and to a FanDuel-branded network. The microphone at Circa never changed hands in any way a viewer would notice. The rate card did.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does VSiN stand for?

VSiN stands for Vegas Sports Information Network, the name DraftKings used in its March 30, 2021 release; some Las Vegas write-ups have also used Vegas Stats & Information Network for the same operation, which launched in 2017 as a betting-only video and radio shop rather than a general sports talk brand.

Who are Brian Musburger and Bill Adee?

Brian Musburger is a co-founder who previously worked as a Chicago talent agent with his father, attorney Todd Musburger, and is the nephew of broadcaster Brent Musburger; Bill Adee is the other co-founder, a former Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times editor who also ran digital business at Tribune Publishing, and he still writes the VSiN Daily from the Circa sportsbook.

Which FanDuel Sports Network regions carry VSiN By the Books?

The weekday 7 to 10 a.m. ET show is listed for FanDuel Sports Network Detroit, Florida, Midwest, North, Ohio, South, Southwest, West, and Wisconsin, plus the FanDuel Sports Network app, and it is produced as a Main Street Sports Group carriage deal rather than a FanDuel TV program.

When did VSiN first air on SiriusXM?

VSiN programming ran on SiriusXM from the network’s 2017 launch through 2020, dropped off during the DraftKings ownership years, and returned on January 17, 2025 as a dedicated 24/7 channel after a Mad Dog Sports Radio weeknight show started on January 6, 2025.