Netflix’s gaming ambitions could be slowed by another tech giant: Apple.

The leading video streaming company has been developing games as a way to attract and retain customers, releasing titles for Android earlier this month. The games are offered free to the company’s subscribers, who numbered 213.6 million as of Sept. 30. 

However, Apple retained its right to keep other game stores out of its App Store in its court battle with Epic Games, preventing Netflix and others from offering an easy-to-use platform for mobile iOS users. 

Apple also doesn’t allow third parties to offer gaming platforms on its App Store, blocking products like Xbox Cloud Gaming, Nvidia GeForce Now, and Google Stadia from appearing in their fully realized form on iPhones and iPads.

• The App Store generates $19 billion in annual revenue, most of which comes from its 30% developer fee on in-app purchases inside free-to-play games.
• The number of iPhone users topped 1 billion in January, according to the company.
• Apple has also been trying to move into Netflix’s domain, but lags far behind: Apple TV had under 20 million subscribers as of July.

Netflix plans to release games individually on the App Store, allowing users to launch, but not play them from the Netflix app.

The New York State gaming commission has chosen two of the six bidders — or groups of bidders — that submitted proposals this past summer for mobile sports betting licenses.

A group formed by DraftKings, BetMGM, Bally’s, and FanDuel was chosen for one of the bids on Monday, with the other going to a group that included PointsBet, Caesars Entertainment, Wynn Resorts, Rush Street Interactive, Resorts World, and Kambi Group.

Fanatics, Penn National, Fox Bet, and bet365 were among operators who did not receive approval.

Each operator is required to pay a 51% tax rate to the state for 10 years — state tax revenue could reach $500 million by 2025, according to state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Sports betting has been legal in the state since 2013, but was limited to casinos.

• Colorado recorded $2.3 billion in wagers in its first full year of sports betting.
• New Jersey became the first state to hit $1 billion during a single month in September, reaching a total of $7 billion for the first nine months of the year.

“Once we enter the arena, we’ll eclipse New Jersey,” New York Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr. said.

New York will become one of the largest states with mobile sports betting once the operators are set up, which Addabbo hopes will happen by the Super Bowl in February at the latest.

Roblox, the online game-creation platform, generated $509.3 million in revenue in Q3 2021 — a 102% increase compared to the same period a year ago.

The quarter was driven by a spike in daily active users, which reached 47.3 million in the third quarter, a 31% increase year-over-year.

Roblox users spent more than 11.2 billion hours on the platform in Q3, a 28% uptick compared to Q3 2020.

• Roblox went public in March at a $41.9 billion valuation after multiple delays amid scrutiny by the SEC regarding how revenue is recognized in its finances.
• The company announced a partnership in July with Sony Music Entertainment to bring Sony recording artists into the Roblox metaverse.
• In August, it acquired Guilded, a company focused on building a platform to connect gaming communities.

In October, Roblox announced that it plans to sell $1 billion of junk bonds and will use the proceeds to assist with “general corporate purposes,” including capital expenditures, production and development, and potential acquisitions.

The National Music Publishers’ Association sued Roblox for $200 million in June due to an alleged failure to compensate writers or copyright holders for songs used on the platform.

Nearly a year after the National Basketball Association finalized a new set of private equity ownership guidelines, Major League Soccer published its own equity ownership adjustments this week, following up on a 2020 vote to change requirements. 

The MLS’s rules are stricter than the NBA’s, where qualified private equity firms can own up to 20% in a single franchise but cannot invest in more than five teams. Neither league allows any team to have more than 30% of its equity owned by private funds.

In order for a fund to be considered “qualified,” more than 25% of the fund itself cannot be owned by a single investor, and total investments in MLS teams cannot surpass 25% of the total fund.

• Each fund must have raised at least $500 million, and no more than 10% of a fund can be invested in one team. 
• Funds are limited to four teams each.
• Each investment in a single club must be more than $20 million, but it can’t surpass 20% of the club’s equity.

The funds investing in MLS teams will not be allowed to hold a board position or have controlling ownership, and the club’s majority owner will have first negotiation rights if a fund chooses to sell its stake.

The adjustments come two months after MLS’ Inter Miami received a $150 million investment from Ares Management.