When DraftKings swooped in with a late effort to snatch the U.S. operations of PointsBet from Fanatics, it felt like there was more to the story. And there reportedly is.

DraftKings CEO Jason Robins currently pitted against Michael Rubin, the billionaire boss of Fanatics to buy the PointsBet sports betting business has made his rival bid two years after DraftKings and Fanatics secretly held merger talks, two sources close to the situation said.

DraftKings in early 2021 was in deep talks with Fanatics in what would have been a 50-50 merger with each company valued at about $24 billion, sources said, revealing high-stakes negotiations that have not been previously reported.

In a written statement, a DraftKings spokesman said the company’s PointsBet bid is “centered around the significant synergies and financial rationale, along with the interesting product and technology capabilities we would acquire through the proposed transaction.