Brooklyn Nets Owner Envisions Games Streaming on Twitch with Embedded Gambling Features
Live sports seems to be the one thing that keeps viewers attached to any sort of linear TV service. But the Brooklyn Nets owner is suggesting the games may eventually appear on other platforms in different forms.
“What if, in addition to broadcasting games on ESPN and ABC, and streaming games on ESPN+, we can have another way of presenting a game on Twitch, with a Twitch gamer calling the game?” said Nets owner Joe Tsai in an interview with Sportico. “In that Twitch stream you could do sports betting, play interactive games within that engagement experience and earn cryptocurrency. I don’t think it will cannibalize ESPN.”
Tsai’s vision may be a half-court shot at this point. Media companies pay staggering figures for the rights to broadcast and stream these games. The NBA gets $2.66 billion per year for broadcast rights. That deal runs through the 2024-25 season.
When the deal expires, we could see more aggressive negotiations in the streaming world. Amazon Prime Video made a splash by scooping up exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football for $13.2 billion over the next 11 years. And that’s just for the rights to 15 games each year.
Linear networks are scrambling for advertiser-friendly live programming, and sports appears to be their best option. But we know that audiences are shrinking there, as well.
NFL, NBA, and MLB fans aged 18-34 said that they prefer watching highlights to full games, especially when compared to other demographics. Take the NFL, for example. Among football fans, 48 percent of 18-34 year-old NFL fans said they preferred clips to actual games, while only 20 percent of 35-49-year-olds said the same, and only 11 percent of fans over 50 agreed. There isn’t as much disparity in the other sports, especially when it comes to the NBA, where even 40 percent of 50+ hoops fans say they’d rather watch highlights than the full game.
For those who do watch the games in real time, many won’t tune in until the end. Half of NBA fans under 35 wait until the fourth quarter to watch, along with 38% of viewers 35-49, and 39% of those over 50. In 2018, the NBA added the ability to purchase the fourth quarter of out-of-market games for just $1.99.
Hopes seem to be surging that gamblers might provide the necessary audience. To Tsai’s point, embedded betting features are in the works across several services. Earlier this month, fuboTV showed off its new app, which displays a betting slip that corresponds to whichever game you're watching online.
Unless we see some sort of sports fan renaissance, we seem locked into an increasingly expensive battle for a decreasing audience. Keeping the games locked into exclusive TV partners might provide value, but as more paywalls go up, the audience will surely dwindle. You only need to look at how boxing has faded into obscurity to see how high barriers to viewership can backfire over time.
With billions of dollars in the balance, it’s anybody’s guess how this all plays out.