Chicago Sports Gambling Company Makes Quick Sublease Exit

Chicago’s third-hand market is gaining some office supply.

A sports gambling company is making a quick exit from the Loop offices it subleased just a year ago, adding to a market with already historic levels of sublease offerings.

The sportsbook Fubo Gaming, which is operated by the FuboTV streaming service, put its seventh-floor offices at 1 North Dearborn Street back onto the market after subleasing itself from artificial intelligence company Narrative Science, Crain’s reported, citing a marketing flier from brokerage JLL.

The desire to quickly market an office that was already subleased once is an example of how companies have been juggling their needs for physical office space in downtown cores and making quick decisions to scale up or down as the pandemic rages, then wanes.

A record 5.9 million square feet in Chicago’s central business district was on the secondary market earlier this year, with Motorola Solutions, Schiff Hardin and Peoples Gas adding to it in recent months as companies cut space. In the city and suburbs, some companies with expiring leases have downsized in moves or renewals, sometimes by as much as a quarter of the space they rented pre-pandemic.

It is unclear where Fubo Gaming will head next. A spokeswoman for the company told Crain’s that Fubo Gaming “continues to be committed to locating its headquarters in Chicago.”

Sublease offerings are drawing tenants looking for savings by renting at discounted rates from a tenant that has downsized or left a lease early rather than directly from a landlord at full price. A sublease offering at 515 North State Street is being considered by publicly traded cannabis company Verano Holdings, while marketing software company Braze subleased 50,000 square feet at 1 North State Street from another software firm Showpad early this year.