While regional sports networks face an uncertain future due to cord-cutting, Bally’s chair Soo Kim told Front Office Sports he sees ample present and future value in them.

Bally’s bought the naming rights to 21 regional sports networks owned by Sinclair in November 2020 in a 10-year, $85 million deal.

Sinclair is seeking to bundle those RSNs into a streaming service, which it told potential investors could attract 4.4 million subscribers and bring in $2 billion annually.

• This would be an attractive proposition for Bally’s because it would allow the company to integrate watching and gaming into a single screen.
• “You can create a very different kind of experience of how sports are consumed,” Kim said. “It could potentially be a lot more interactive, a lot more engaging, and we think that’s where the future of sports is going to go.”
• In the meantime, the RSNs provide brand exposure for Bally’s. “Last year, there were something like 4 billion impressions of the words ‘Bally Sports,’” he added.

Drawing from the more mature European market, Kim foresees in-game betting — “about 70% of the action in Europe” — as a major source of growth in U.S. sports betting.

However, part of the value in bringing sports bettors to Bally’s is converting them to iGaming.

“Sports gaming itself is not actually the best gambling product for the house” said Kim. “There’s variable margins, informational advantages, and liquidity is hard to match sometimes. iGaming is a much better business.”

Florida has ceased all sports betting and gaming after Monday’s ruling by Judge Dabney L. Friedrich rejected a compact between the Florida government and Seminole Tribe that only allowed sports betting on Seminole lands.

The 30-year compact was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and approved by the Florida Legislature earlier this year — the Seminole Tribe agreed to pay at least $2.5 billion to the state over the first five years as part of the deal, which also allowed the tribe to add roulette and craps to its casinos.

Despite multiple efforts from other companies to block it — DraftKings and FanDuel raised $20 million — the compact went through, but it has only been live for the past three weeks.

• Judge Friedrich concluded that the compact violates the federal Indian Gaming Act that requires state-sanctioned gambling to occur on tribal land.
• Instead of making sure all sports betting physically took place on tribal land, the Seminole Tribe reportedly considered bets going through servers on tribal property as good enough. “This Court cannot accept that fiction,” Friedrich said.

With the Secretary’s approval, the Tribe and state can agree to a new compact. Friedrich also said, “Florida citizens may authorize such betting across their State through a citizens’ initiative.”

The ruling is expected to be appealed.

Sporting Lisbon is reportedly in talks to repurchase debt worth $282 million from its two largest lenders, Novo Banco SA and Banco Comercial Portugues SA.

The potential buyback follows Sporting Lisbon’s net loss of $37 million in the financial year ending June 30. The club saw its total debt reach $349 million for the year, up from $335 million in FY2020 — despite winning its first Primeira Liga title in 19 years.

According to Bloomberg, Sporting Lisbon plans to repurchase debt by borrowing money from Apollo Global Management, a New York-based private equity firm that agreed to merge with Athene in January in a deal valued at $11 billion.

• The debt will convert into equity if there’s a failure to repay.
• There’s potential for the debt to be bought back at a discount to its face value.
• No final agreement has been reached, as other bidders consider acquiring the debt.

Sporting Lisbon has suffered long-standing financial losses due to the global pandemic. Last year, the club cut player salaries by 40% for three months due to the suspension of games, while its board of directors took a 50% cut.

Monster Beverage is exploring a combination deal with alcohol distributor Constellation Brands, per Bloomberg.

The deal, which could be a merger or asset transaction, would require approval by the Sands family, who founded Constellation in 1945 and have turned it into a company currently valued at $44 billion.

Established as a wine producer, Constellation has become a major player in the global beverage market as a distributor of brands like Corona and Modelo, both of which have numerous sponsorships across sports.

Known for its energy drinks often used pre-workout, Monster has established a footprint in sports through sponsorships in mixed martial arts and extreme sports competitions across water, snow, and land. In 2014, Coca-Cola acquired a $2 billion majority stake in the company, which now has a market value of $48 billion.

The market for beverages with ties to sports continues to grow.

• Last year, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Aaron Donald became part-owners in sports drink startup Ready Nutrition.
• In July, sports drink and supplement company X2 Performance raised $16 million in Series D funding.
• Earlier this month, Coca-Cola paid $5.6 billion for sports drink company BodyArmor, its largest acquisition to date. 

Monster posted $1.41 billion in sales in Q3 2021, up from $1.25 billion in the same period a year prior.