Apple’s deal to stream live baseball games may pale in comparison to what comes next: The tech giant is reportedly close to securing a deal for “NFL Sunday Ticket.”

The deal for the out-of-market broadcast package is on the cusp of completion, according to The Puck, with one source saying it’s done already. The announcement is being delayed to better fit Apple’s timing, per the insider.

• The deal could earn the NFL around $2.5 billion annually.
• Sources told Front Office Sports in March that Apple is interested in bundling “NFL Sunday Ticket,” mobile streaming rights, and a stake in NFL Media.
• A deal could see Apple take on up to 49% of NFL Media.

The NFL is also reportedly exploring launching its own streaming service, which could offer out-of-market games for $5 per month.

Apple’s Big Moment

Apple announced its seven-year MLB deal worth an annual $85 million during a product event in March. It could seek to do the same for an NFL-related announcement. 

Its next such event is the Worldwide Developer Conference, scheduled for June 6-10.

A January report from investment firm Wedbush said that Apple was preparing to spend billions of dollars on live sports to drive subscriptions to Apple TV+.

The Washington Commanders’ legal team called the allegations made by a former team ticket employee “uncorroborated and implausible” in Monday’s 102-page letter to the Federal Trade Commission. 

The document obtained by Front Office Sports — which included email exchanges, spreadsheet, and affidavits from former Commanders general counsel David Donovan and former team COO Mitch Gershman — served as response to last week’s letter sent by the House Oversight Committee to the FTC.

Jordan Siev, a partner at the firm Reed Smith who represents the Commanders, wrote that the team was not given “any mechanism whatsoever for the team to address the truth of the allegations.” 

The Commanders’ Rebuttal 

In the letter, Oversight Committee chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney wrote that team executives and owner Dan Snyder “may have engaged in a troubling, long-running, and potentially unlawful pattern of financial conduct.”

• The Commanders’ legal team wrote that auditors “unsurprisingly” didn’t find anything amiss with how revenue from a Navy-Notre Dame game or a Kenny Chesney concert was accounted for, as Jason Friedman, the ex-employee, claimed. 
• The team claimed it didn’t intentionally underreport Commanders ticket revenue and thus didn’t, short revenue sharing requirements under NFL bylaws. 
• The Commanders say deposits for club seats were not converted into team revenue, as Friedman alleged. 

Allegations that the Commanders held back ticket revenue from the NFL were first reported by FOS on April 2 and those claims were part of the Oversight Committee’s letter to the FTC, using evidence provided by Friedman.

Ticketing platform SeatGeek reported record fourth-quarter revenue in the company’s latest earnings report.

SeatGeek generated a record $82.5 million in revenue in Q4 2021, up from $4.8 million for the same period the year prior, by providing ticketing services to teams including the Dallas Cowboys, Brooklyn Nets, and Liverpool FC.

The strong results follow an underwhelming FY2020 for SeatGeek. The company saw its revenue drop from $142 million in 2019 to $33 million in 2020 largely due to the pandemic and fan limitations at in-person events. SeatGeek rebounded with $186.3 million in revenue in FY2021. 

SeatGeek continues to diversify its portfolio through multiple sports in 2022. 

• It secured a deal in January with Daytona International Speedway for the Daytona 500.
• In February, it agreed to a multiyear deal with the NWSL’s Kansas City Current.
• Earlier this month, it inked a multiyear partnership with the Citi Open tennis tournament. 

In October 2021, SeatGeek went public via a merger with RedBall Acquisition Corp., valuing the combined entity at $1.35 billion. The merger with RedBall, a SPAC co-founded by Oakland A’s executive and minority owner Billy Beane, included a $100 million investment from Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures, Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith, and other investors.

Piece of the Pie 

SeatGeek has increased its market share year-over-year since 2017. The company has jumped from a 5% to 12% share of a live entertainment market valued at $126 billion.