Sling TV, fuboTV Both Excited About Future of Sports Betting on Streaming TV
Officials from Sling TV and fuboTV were both excited about opportunities for sports betting in the future of the streaming universe at an industry panel discussion this week.
Speaking virtually at the Stream TV Show on Thursday, Sling TV’s VP of Product, Jon Lin, and fuboTV’s Chief Product Officer, Mike Berkley showcased the benefits of recently introduced betting products on both platforms.
“We’re very excited about these player prop-style questions right now,” Berkley said.
He pointed out that fuboTV is testing a product that allows viewers to bet in the first quarter of a basketball game, on how many points a particular player will score in the second quarter, for example.
“We’re testing that on a free-to-play basis, as we get up and going with our sportsbook,” he said.
Earlier this year, fuboTV announced that they anticipated that their long-awaited sportsbook functionality would beup and running by the fourth quarter of 2021.
“We believe online sports wagering is a highly complementary business to our sports-first live TV streaming platform,” said fuboTV CEO David Gandler in March. “We don’t see wagering as simply an add-on product to fuboTV. Instead, we believe there is a real flywheel opportunity with streaming video content and interactivity.”
Sling launched three sportsbook channels in conjunction with DraftKings earlier this year — DraftKings Basketball, DraftKings Hockey, and DraftKings Baseball — each including real-time game scores and betting odds.
“In March we announced DraftKings to bring their sports betting Daily Fantasy directly to our customers nationwide,” Lin said. “Obviously (it’s) not legal nationwide, everywhere for sports betting right now.”
One of the most significant challenges to dealing with widely available sportsbook information is tied to collegiate sports.
Tariq Varani from Pac-12 Networks pointed out some of those pitfalls, emphasizing that while there are potentially some bad actors who may have nefarious intentions in mind when it comes to attracting college athletes into the world of gambling, there are still opportunities for money to be made, not only by the networks but by the institutions themselves.
“The excitement comes from the engagement possibilities, so when you have a monetary vested interest in an event. I’d say it’s probably more likely that you’re going to watch that event,” Varani said. “So, with that comes opportunities for more features, or sponsorships, more money for the platforms or for everybody.”