NBC and PointsBet Add to Media/Betting Provider Merger Trend

The legal sports betting industry in the US continues its huge swing toward total mainstreaming. The last few months have seen a rash of established media brands jumping on the sports betting wagon and signing industry-changing official partnership deals with betting providers. The latest came this past Thursday.

Already, CBS/William Hill and Barstool Sports/Penn National have forged relationships that aim to beam betting content into US households and just this week ESPN/Caesars and VSiN/BetMGM partnerships were consummated with the goal of creating television shows dedicated to sports betting. Well, to end the week, US marketing giant NBC and up-and-coming PointsBet added their names to the mix, signing a multi-year deal to work together on developing and expanding each other’s sports betting reach going forward.

PointsBet Managing Director and Group CEO Sam Swanell described the deal as transformational for PointsBet, saying: “NBC Sports, an iconic brand and holder of the largest sports audience in the US, brings significant credibility and trust to PointsBet’s operations. Through the NBC Sports partnership, PointsBet gains access to market-leading linear assets which span 184 million viewers and digital assets which span 60 million monthly active users."

The Deal

NBCUniversal and PointsBet announced a multi-year partnership making PointsBet the official sports betting partner of NBC Sports. Both huge players in their own spaces, NBC and PointsBet have officially joined forced to take advantage of a legal sports betting scene that has exploded in the US since 2018.

NBC Sports provides the enormous reach (the largest sports audience of any US median company, accessing over 184 million viewers and 60 million digital active users) as well as year-round, multi-platform media and marketing opportunities for PointsBet on all NBC Sports' highly successful and highly-viewed media platforms. NBC is home to MLB, NBA, and NHL teams, and it delivers more than 2,200 live sporting events every year.

The deal also gives PointsBet a chance to integrate itself into the NBC Sports Predictor app, which currently houses free games for football, golf, NASCAR, and Premier League soccer. The Sports Predictor app currently boasts more than 1.1 million downloads.

PointsBet will be in charge of providing betting odds, props, betting trends, and related content to NBC Sports Network, Golf Channel, NBC Sports podcasts, and all of NBC Sports' digital properties. PointsBet will see airtime on all NBC Sports’ fantasy formats, including Rotoworld which provides daily insights and analysis on NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, college football, golf, Premier League, and NASCAR.

Terms

PointsBet will reportedly pay NBCUniversal $393 million for marketing placement, along with “incentives” for customer referrals. Sportico reported that the agreement will be worth nearly $500 million upon maturity. NBCUniversal also gets a 4.9% stake in PointsBet.

About a third of the $393 million was paid in shares and options that could leave NBCUniversal with around 20 percent of the company. It is a huge cash commitment that shows just how serious this partnership is.

Win/Win Partnership

Keeping up in the ever-evolving US legal betting scene seems as crucial as ever as we head into the NFL season with an already full betting menu. There appears to be enough to go around as evidenced by the estimated $13 billion that was spend on legal wagers in the country in 2019.

David Preschlack, President, NBC Sports Regional Networks, and Executive Vice President, Content Strategy, NBC Sports Group, commented: “For NBCUniversal and PointsBet, this agreement provides considerable opportunities in the fast-growing sports betting market place, which is unique to this extensive and robust, multi-year arrangement. Looking ahead, we’re also excited about the significant activation opportunities that will come to fruition as sports betting continues to proliferate across the US.”

PointsBet gets the enormous exposure that it so badly needed as one of the more under-the-radar names in the legal US betting scene and NBC gets that dedicated provider that other media companies have been increasingly aligning themselves with.

The legal sports betting landscape in the US has definitely evolved. Once a platform that was inaccessible to US citizens has become one that is virtually unavoidable, whether you are attending a game, reading about a game, or simply watching it on TV.