Bally Sports Detroit — New name coming to Fox Sports Detroit, other regional sports networks

Fox Sports Detroit will be rebranded Bally’s Sports Detroit at some point ahead of the beginning of the Major League Baseball season, according to Sports Biz Journal. FSD is one of several regional sports networks throughout the country that will get the new Bally’s moniker. Disney, which purchased 20th Century Fox a few years ago, was forced to spin off the regional sports network brand in order to make that sale go through.

It was reported at the end of last year that Sinclair Broadcast Group, who purchased the regional sports networks from Disney, sold the naming rights to Bally’s in a 10-year naming rights agreement for around $90 million.

While this changeover is cosmetic, it does not mean there are any plans in place to make Bally’s Sports Detroit available on various streaming platforms such as Hulu Live and YouTubeTV as Sinclair still seems to be at odds with those providers.

Currently, you can receive the eventual Bally’s Sports Detroit via traditional cable and satellite packages and the streaming platform AT&T Now, but on one of the upper-tier packages on the latter.

Reports indicate the switchover will all be made official in time for the new major league baseball season, but there is no official date for Fox Sports Detroit’s rechristening under its new name.

So we have the country’s worst broadcast system owning the channel? Selling off the naming rights for a little extra cash? To a gambling provider, which means even more nonstop gambling, casino and sports betting “game” commercials during broadcasts? Check, check and check.

This sucks.