Netflix’s words and actions aren’t quite matching up.

The streaming giant continues to say it isn’t interested in being a major player in live sports rights, yet it keeps dipping its toes in the proverbial waters.

Live boxing could be coming to Netflix, which is exploring exclusively streaming a match involving Jake Paul, according to the Wall Street Journal. Also being considered for broadcast are matches from Premier Boxing Champions, a promotion currently airing on Showtime — a network that will be shut down by owner Paramount at the end of this year. 

Any potential boxing streams would follow the Netflix Cup on Nov. 14 — a golf event that will mark the tech company’s first effort presenting live sports. It will involve athletes from Netflix’s PGA Tour series “Full Swing” and Formula 1 series “Drive to Survive.” Coincidentally, Paul is the subject of a Netflix documentary in its “Untold” series that was released this summer.

During Netflix’s most recent earnings report, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said there was no core change to the company’s live sport strategy or licensing of live sports. 

“We are investing heavily in increasing our live capabilities so that as the demand grows for that and we find different ways, the liveness can be part of the creative storytelling, we want to be able to do that at a big scale,” he said.

Netflix’s confirmed and reported moves appear to show a strategy focused on live sporting events with athletes and properties it already works with — whether or not that leads to broadcasts beyond one-off, specialty events.

Saudi Arabia just secured the 2034 FIFA World Cup — but its aggressive ambition to be involved in as much of professional sports as possible shows no sign of slowing.

New reports point to efforts by Saudi Arabia to potentially invest billions of dollars into one sport to which it has no major ties — and another in which it’s looking to expand.

The Indian Premier League has held talks with Saudi officials about injecting as much as $5 billion into the world’s top international cricket competition, according to Bloomberg. Under a potential deal, the IPL could be valued at $30 billion, with Saudi Arabia acquiring a significant minority stake in the league. This would mark the first Saudi investment in cricket.

Saudi Arabia is also trying to buy two major tennis tournaments — the Miami and Madrid Opens, per The Athletic. Currently owned by Endeavor’s IMG agency, both are top-level events on the men’s ATP and women’s WTA tours, falling just behind the four Grand Slams. The two tournaments could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars each.

The country launched the Diriyah Tennis Cup in 2019, and is the new host of the under-21 Next Gen ATP Finals through 2027. It has also explored investing individually in the ATP and WTA tours, though neither prospect has materialized yet.

Beyond the new interests, Saudi Arabia is invested in LIV Golf, Formula 1, Premier League club Newcastle United, and MMA.

The beginning of football season further solidified DraftKings’ strong standing in its battle with FanDuel.

In its most recent fiscal quarter ending Sept. 30, revenue hit $790 million — a 57% increase from the same time period in 2022. Average monthly unique paying customers rose to 2.3 million, a 40% bump from a year ago.

Numbers for sportsbook and iGaming financials are reported together, but DraftKings’ mobile sports betting app is live in 23 states as of Friday morning, while the mobile iGaming product is only in five.

DraftKings now predicts that its 2024 fiscal revenue could be as high as $4.8 billion, which would be a 25% increase from the company’s current 2023 forecast, with the fourth quarter still remaining. Next year, DraftKings plans on having mobile sports betting operations up and running in North Carolina, Vermont, and Puerto Rico.

On the company’s earnings call, CEO Jason Robins indicated that customer growth was only the tip of the iceberg. “We haven’t found a ceiling yet,” he said.

Top Dogs

FanDuel is DraftKings’ top competitor for U.S. market share, and the former’s top executive isn’t sure newcomers like Fanatics or the soon-to-launch ESPN Bet will be able to keep up with the duo.

“If you’re sitting there with a low-single-digit share, and you don’t have that scale advantage over time, it just becomes harder to reinvest back into giving what consumers want,” FanDuel CEO Amy Howe said.