FuboTV to Introduce Sports Quizzes for Prizes, Plans to Offer Betting Later This Year
fuboTV plans to introduce a new feature to its South American World Cup qualifier coverage this week.
In an interview, officials with the streaming service said they will allow viewers to look at live stats and then answer quiz questions. Viewers may predict possible outcomes, such as which team will score first, in exchange for a free year of fuboTV. This feature will be accessible on fuboTV’s Roku and Android apps, but it will eventually be an option for Fire TV, iOS, and web users too.
Right now, this new feature is in its beta mode and only available for the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL) qualifiers, which will be streamed exclusively onfuboTV in the United States.
The company said it plans to introduce a sportsbook in the fourth quarter of 2021, but they have decided to start small. This is a test to determine how a sportsbook might perform.
“Our hypothesis is that it’s going to be an engagement driver, but also in the bigger picture, it’s kind of our first step towards our overall gaming strategy,” said Mike Berkley, fuboTV’s chief product officer. “Think of this really as a platform feature, where we can create a more enhanced viewing experience for every kind of content we provide on the platform,” he says.
Because sports betting isn’t legal in every state and fuboTV doesn’t have a huge audience yet, the company will have to move slowly in this direction. The company hopes to have the contests fully available when football season begins in the fall. It doesn’t look like Fubo is going to stop there though. It’s possible that contests will be available for non-sporting events in the future too.
Fubo
Fubo is a live TV streaming service with about 90 top channels that start at $79.99 per month. This plan includes local channels, 25 of the top 35 cable channels, and regional sports networks (RSNs). In total, you should expect to pay about $91.99 per month, after adding in their RSN Fee. Fubo was previously known as “fuboTV.”
David Gandler, fuboTV’s co-founder and CEO, sees a lot of potential for this feature. In the future, Fubo could partner with other companies to give viewers a chance to win cars, food, and more.
“It allows us to isolate folks that are competitive and interested in additional opportunities,” Gandler said. “Some people will probably prefer to have more skin in the game than just the contests.”
“If things are going well, and we’ve added an additional revenue stream, we’ll look to balance that out,” Gandler said. “Given the fact that sports betting is profitable—it has a margin of, we believe, targeting around 50%—it’d be in our interest to see what we can do to [bring in] more people.”
Other companies already offer sports betting while streaming games. Dish Network offers a DraftKings app with its satellite boxes, while NBCUniversal offered betting during the PGA Tour on Peacock earlier this year.