Sports streaming giant fuboTV is joining the betting gold rush after announcing plans to launch its own online sportsbook later in 2021.
The fubo Sportsbook will launch in three states in the final quarter of 2021 as it looks to capitalize on the riches promised by NFL betting during football season.
fubo will partner with Caesars to launch its new product into New Jersey and Indiana, while it had already secured a deal with Casino Queen to provide market access in Iowa.
The regulated U.S. sports betting market expected to be worth anywhere between $8billion and $10billion by 2025. And with a paid subscriber base of almost 550,000 ready to draw on, getting involved directly makes sense for fubo.
fuboTV revenues
The platform – which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, recently announced strong fourth-quarter revenues for 2020 despite the pandemic (more than $105million). It has also inked deals to become an Authorized Gaming Operator for both NBA betting and MLB betting.
Via Yahoo, fuboTV co-founder and CEO David Gandler said: “We could not be more excited to bring fubo Sportsbook to market in the fourth quarter, and today’s market access licenses for Indiana and New Jersey will help us reach even more consumers at launch.”
Smart betting play
Launching in markets like New Jersey and Indiana is a sensible play for the streaming giant – NJ alone accounted for almost a third of the total U.S. handle from legalization in 2018 through 2020.
FuboTV is just the latest sports media business to go all in on becoming a sportsbook to take bets directly. Controversial Barstool Sports – now partly owned by Penn National Gaming – has Barstool Sportsbook. Meanwhile popular sports news & scores app theScore has also launched its own sportsbook.
These huge media properties, which already have captive audiences, have a direct marketing route to an existing user base without the third-party customer acquisition costs faced by most new operators.