May 4, 2022

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The NFL announced its international series schedule on Wednesday — which included two milestones for the league. The Seahawks and Buccaneers will square off in the first NFL game ever played in Germany, while the Broncos-Jaguars game in London will become the first to air exclusively on ESPN+.

Oh, and Tom Brady is poised to become the first NFL quarterback to start games in four different countries. Brady is 3-0 in international games.

Super Bowl Lifts FanDuel During $1.6B Quarter

Flutter

FanDuel owner Flutter Entertainment reported a favorable first quarter driven by the company’s U.S. sports betting business.

Flutter — the world’s largest listed gambling group — generated [[link removed]] $1.6 billion in revenue in Q1 2022, a 6% increase year-over-year. The company based in Dublin, Ireland saw its U.S. business pocket $574 million during the quarter, a 45% increase compared to the same period the year prior.

Super Bowl LVI provided FanDuel with its largest day ever for new customers.FanDuel has 2.4 million U.S. customers with a 37% market share — the No. 1 U.S. sportsbook.It launched in New York and Louisiana during the quarter.Customers placed 19 million wagers over the entire men’s March Madness tournament.

Flutter bought Fastball Holding’s stake in FanDuel in 2020 for $4.2 billion, increasing its share from 58% to 95% for a total value of $11.2 billion. The investment is paying off now that 19 states have legalized online sports betting, providing access [[link removed]] to over 100 million Americans.

Struggling Partner

Flutter is also a partner of Fox Bet, which has struggled [[link removed]] to be a leader in the U.S. betting market. Fox Corp.’s platform partnered with Flutter after the latter bought The Stars Group, the online gambling company that created Fox Bet, for $6 billion in 2019.

Fox Bet has struggled to gain traction due to its poor reach and overall technology. The app is only available in four states (Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey) and has less than a 1% share of the U.S. online betting market outside Nevada.

New York Times Experiences Growing Pains With The Athletic

Jens Schott Knudsen

As expected, The Athletic has brought subscriber growth to The New York Times — at a fairly significant cost.

The sports news site lost $6.8 million in February and March after the $550 million acquisition [[link removed]] closed earlier this year, which led The Times Company’s first-quarter adjusted operating profits, reported Wednesday, to dip 10.5% to $60.9 million. Operating profits were $68.1 million in the same quarter a year ago.

Making The Athletic Profitable

The Times inched closer to its goal of 15 million subscribers by the close of 2027 as the 1.1 million Athletic subscribers boosted its paid-subscriber count to 9.1 million, according to the company.

The Athletic was founded in 2016 with an ad-free subscription model. Meredith Kopit Levien, president and CEO of the New York Times Company, told analysts on Wednesday that the company has “begun to lay the groundwork for introducing an array of advertising products to The Athletic later in the year.”The Times will introduce a bundled subscription with The Athletic “in the back half of this year,” Levien said. The Athletic lost $55 million on about $65 million in revenue in 2021, and the changes implemented by The Times will result in “a slight reduction in operating losses” this year, according to NYT executive vice president and CFO Roland A. Caputo.

Meanwhile, Wordle — the online word game acquired by the Times in the first quarter in the “low seven figures” [[link removed]] range — has been a hit.

“Wordle brought an unprecedented tens of millions of new users to The Times,” Levien said.

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Learn more [[link removed]] about how products for this market can be a growth opportunity in 2022 and beyond.

Sinclair Revenue Down, Bally Sports+ Coming

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Sinclair Broadcasting Group provided some insight into the company’s upcoming sports streaming service during a first-quarter earnings call, reporting revenue of $1.29 billion — a 14.8% year-over-year decline.

In early 2021, Sinclair announced the rebranding of the regional sports networks it acquired [[link removed]] for $9.6 billion in 2019 from Disney, which now carry the Bally Sports name. A little over a year later, it valued [[link removed]] the networks at $4.23 billion.

In June 2021, the company announced [[link removed]] it was looking to raise $250 million for its new sports streaming service. This January, it secured $600 million and a broadcastings rights deal [[link removed]] with the NBA.

On Wednesday, new details [[link removed]] about the service were revealed.

CEO Chris Ripley referred to the service as Bally Sports+.The service will cost $189.99 annually or $19.99 per month. Comparatively, ESPN+ costs $6.99 per month, NFL Sunday Ticket is $74 per month, and NBA League Pass Premium costs $29.99 per month.

Sinclair owns broadcasting rights to 38 MLB, NBA, and NHL franchises that are already available on its stations. The broadcaster has streaming rights for all NHL and NBA teams, and is having “constructive dialogue” with other leagues and teams.

Q1 advertising revenue [[link removed]] reached $371 million.

Tightening Things Up

During the quarter, the company consolidated Diamond Sports Group, which announced [[link removed]] a new board of managers on Monday. DSG, a sports marketing company, is the subsidiary overseeing the Bally Sports regional sports networks and DTC app.

Sinclair says it will still hold “nearly 100%” of DSG’s ownership.

Conversation Starters In The Leadoff, Liverpool is seeking $100 million annually for its next shirt sponsorship deal, Brian Flores’ lawyers hit back at the NFL, Callaway’s TravisMathew launches a women’s activewear line, and MGM Resorts International posts a $2.9 billion quarter. Click here to listen [[link removed]]. On Tuesday, Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies scored [[link removed]] a playoff-high 47 points, joining Kobe Bryant and LeBron James as the only players under the age of 23 to score 45+ points twice in the postseason. Jurgen Klopp was already one of the world’s best soccer managers — but his latest tactical masterclass [[link removed]] has put Liverpool on the brink of history. Klopp’s aggressive attacking scheme allowed the Reds to explode for three second-half goals on Tuesday to advance on aggregate to the UEFA Champions League final. The Washington Capitals were the last team in the Eastern Conference to clinch an NHL playoff berth — but no one should sleep on a team [[link removed]] featuring Alex Ovechkin, arguably the greatest goal-scorer of all time, and Nicklas Bäckström, another likely future Hall of Famer. Subscribe to Scoreboard for more [[link removed]].

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Market Movers

U.S. stocks experienced gains across all three major indexes on Wednesday. Here’s a look at how sports-related stocks performed:

VFC [[link removed]]

VF Corp.

[[link removed]]

$52.06

[[link removed]]

+0.60%

[[link removed]] RCI [[link removed]]

Rogers Communications Inc.

[[link removed]]

$53.98

[[link removed]]

+0.69%

[[link removed]] UA [[link removed]]

Under Armour Inc

[[link removed]]

$14.44

[[link removed]]

+1.01%

[[link removed]] ARMK [[link removed]]

Aramark

[[link removed]]

$37.22

[[link removed]]

+2.28%

[[link removed]] NKE [[link removed]]

Nike, Inc.

[[link removed]]

$126.04

[[link removed]]

+2.32%

[[link removed]] MTN [[link removed]]

Vail Resorts Inc.

[[link removed]]

$261.08

[[link removed]]

+2.78%

[[link removed]] (Note: All as of market close on 5/4/22) What to Watch

UFC 274 marks another star-studded event for the promotion, and it’s sure to pack a punch. In the main event, Charles Oliveira (32-8-0, 1 NC) faces Justin Gaethje (24-3-0) for the lightweight title.

Gaethje is coming off a win over Michael Chandler at UFC 268 in November 2021, while Oliveira enters the fight following a win by submission over Dustin Poirier last December at UFC 269.

How to Watch: Saturday at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ / Stream all of UFC 274 on ESPN+ [[link removed]]*

*Sponsored content. Game availability differs by market, check your local listing.

If this email was forwarded to you, you can subscribe here [[link removed]].

Written by Justin Byers [[link removed]], A.J. Perez [[link removed]], Abigail Gentrup [[link removed]]

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