With more cord-cutting options than ever, sports fans have a veritable cornucopia of live services from which to pick. And as those services develop new ways to win over viewers and keep them tuned in, some appear to be coalescing around a big new feature: betting.
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Streaming services across the industry have started adding betting features alongside their sports feeds, offering a way to increase engagement and open a new revenue stream. Disney, DAZN, FuboTV, Sling, and others have either launched betting companion features or have expressed an interest in entering the space in the US. Any savvy sports service would recognize betting has been synonymous with matches for as long as anyone can remember. And there’s plenty of money to be made.
Sports fans have been unofficially making bets with their friends and family as they watch the game for decades. It’s a natural part of being a fan, and making casual bets with friends and family has gone on since TV was invented. Thus, it is something that streaming services felt would make their product even more engaging than it is now.
Look no further than streaming mastermind Disney, a typically family-friendly content purveyor, as evidence that betting could be the next streaming battleground for any company that owns a live sports service.
During a recent earnings call, Disney boss Bob Chapek told shareholders that the company was “moving towards a greater presence in online sports betting” for its ESPN audiences. He also stated that betting is something Disney is “keenly interested in and is pursuing aggressively.”
“We do believe that sports betting is a very significant opportunity for the company,” Chapek said. “And as we follow the consumer, we necessarily have to seriously consider getting into gambling in a bigger and bigger way. And ESPN is a perfect platform for this.”
Disney was said to be exploring a possible spinoff of ESPN. Also considered is focusing on building value for ESPN Plus by exploring sports betting.
Sports betting has been growing in the last few years on a state-by-state basis. In May 2018, the Supreme Court threw out a federal law that barred sports gambling, paving the way for individual states to permit it.
Today, 34 percent of sports fans bet weekly on games in the US, according to data firm Ampere Analysis, and spend an average of $51 a week. The firm’s data shows that sports enthusiasts are also spending around 3.2 hours a week on fantasy gaming. That spells a big opportunity for live sports services hoping to keep their users engaged, differentiate their products, and expand their business.
The projection is that the legalization of betting will continue to grow state by state aggressively over the next couple of years. There’s a trend for this becoming not just legal but more mainstream.
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