Flutter Is Closing FanDuel TV in 2026, and Horse Racing Is Paying the Price for a Broader Strategic Pivot

Flutter Entertainment has confirmed it will shut down FanDuel TV, the national horse racing channel previously known as TVG, by the end of 2026. The closure was disclosed in Flutter’s first-quarter earnings report as a single sentence on page four, and Flutter CEO Peter Jackson treated it as a minor efficiency measure when asked about it by analysts on the company’s earnings call. For the horse racing industry, the loss of its primary national broadcast home is anything but minor.

FanDuel TV built a national audience over more than 20 years, offering daily coverage of races from tracks across the United States. The channel gave horse racing a dedicated broadcast presence at a time when mainstream sports networks had largely moved on from the sport. Its reach helped sustain interest in horse racing wagering and provided a platform for races that would otherwise receive no national television coverage at all.

Flutter Sees Costs, Racing Sees a Lifeline Disappearing

Flutter’s framing of the closure reflects a fundamental mismatch in priorities. In its Q1 2026 earnings report, the company stated it was closing FanDuel TV and its FanDuel Picks product to “optimize costs and ensure investment is focused on those areas that are expected to generate the greatest returns.” On the earnings call, CEO Peter Jackson called the decision “relatively easy,” explaining that FanDuel’s strategic focus is on sports gaming, iGaming, and increasingly prediction markets.

For context, Flutter reported a 17 percent first-quarter revenue increase but a 38 percent drop in net income. The company’s stock has fallen more than 50 percent in 2026 under pressure from prediction market competition and UK gambling tax hikes. Against that backdrop, any operation that does not directly contribute to the company’s core growth narrative becomes a target for cuts. Flutter handled nearly one in three dollars wagered into U.S. pari-mutuel pools in Q1 2026 and remains the second-largest advance-deposit wagering operator in the country, but those operations are evidently not a strategic priority worth protecting through a racing television network.

What Comes Next for Racing Bettors

For people who use the TVG platform or Flutter’s racing ADW products, the immediate question is what happens to wagering access. Flutter has indicated the ADW wagering operation is continuing for now, even as the television channel closes. That is some comfort, but the loss of FanDuel TV as a discovery and engagement tool has real implications for new bettors who might otherwise have found racing through the channel.

Industry sources have indicated that racing stakeholders are actively working to identify a replacement for the national broadcast coverage that FanDuel TV has provided. Churchill Downs, major racing syndicates, and broadcast rights holders will need to come together quickly, given the planned 2026 shutdown timeline, to ensure that national television coverage does not simply disappear. The outcome of those discussions will determine whether FanDuel TV’s closure represents a temporary disruption or a more lasting blow to racing’s media footprint.

The broader lesson is one the racing industry has confronted repeatedly. As the gambling ecosystem has expanded to include sports betting, online casino, and now prediction markets, thoroughbred racing occupies a smaller and smaller share of any major operator’s strategic attention. FanDuel TV’s closure makes that hierarchy explicit and leaves the sport searching for partners who will treat it as a priority rather than a cost center.