The legal battle between competing multimedia rights holders Playfly and Learfield was short lived, according to a notice of voluntary dismissal filed in Delaware this month, which was viewed by Sportico.
Playfly sued Learfield, the college athletics multimedia-rights giant, earlier this summer over a payment dispute concerning the University of Florida’s athletic programs which highlighted a complicated relationship between the two competitors in Gainesville. In the July lawsuit, Playfly claimed Learfield committed multiple breaches of a six-year sponsorship agreement between a Playfly subsidiary (National Advertising Partners, a former FOX subsidiary) and Learfield that involved the sublicensing of the Gators’ multimedia rights.
Different iterations of National Advertising Partners (NAP) have held a bundle of Florida’s rights since 2008, much of which were sub-licensed to IMG College (which eventually merged into Learfield). Playfly then acquired NAP in 2021, resulting in a highly unusual relationship between Playfly and Learfield, its biggest competitor in the college multimedia rights business.
Playfly alleged Learfield had not made full royalty payments to NAP for Florida’s rights for the last two years—making only a partial payment in 2021 and none in 2022.
On Monday, Playfly filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss the Delaware portion of the dispute after receiving a partial payment from Learfield, which accounted for around 90% of what the Playfly claimed it was owed, according to someone familiar with the agreement. The remainder of what Learfield owes Playfly will be settled privately in an arbitration proceeding that is currently ongoing.
Playfly declined to comment. Learfield, which disputed the claims in July in a statement to Sportico, characterizing the lawsuit as a “simple contract dispute regarding the appropriate adjustment for COVID impairment to these rights,” did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While financial details were redacted in the original complaint, Playfly claimed it was owed millions of dollars. The majority of that amount has now been received, according to the person.
The case will now be dismissed from the docket, though there is a small chance the dispute could return to court if one side challenges the outcome in arbitration and petitions a court to vacate the arbitration award—an unlikely outcome.
-With assistance from Michael McCann.
