Sports media and sports betting are primed for years of explosive growth, a panel of top executives agreed Tuesday at the SBC Digital Summit North America.
In the short term, “we’re talking about March Madness every day of the week” as U.S leagues prepare to squeeze as many NBA, MLB, and NHL games into what remains of this year, said John Levy, CEO of theScore.
Gambling.com CEO Charles Gillespie said operators “are ready to spend as much money as possible” to capture their share of the U.S. sports-betting market.
Brian Musburger, CEO of VSiN (Vegas Sports Information Network), said the amount of sports betting, which became legal in the United States outside Nevada only two years ago, was already stunning before the pandemic and predicted it will continue to grow as more Americans learn the ins and outs.
The three spoke Tuesday during a CEO panel discussion on media and sports betting. Kevin Smith, SBC’s marketing and communications director for North America, moderated.
Gillespie, whose company reports online gaming news around the world, cited last week’s announcement that MGM Resorts and GVC Holdings have committed to a second round of investment in ROAR Digital, a sports-betting and online-gaming company operating as BetMGM. That brought the total funding to $450 million.
“No one’s really thinking about the bottom line at the moment,” he said. “There’s money flowing, which is oiling the gears of innovation and enabling startups … that wouldn’t have been possible a couple of years ago.”
Musburger and Levy, whose sites offer a trove of information about all types of sports, said fan interest didn’t subside even when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down athletic contests around the world. Musburger, whose network focuses on sports-betting news and proprietary data, said his audience constantly looks ahead, because bettors always know the outcome of a game. “You need to understand that when the NBA opens in a bubble, how’s that going to affect season win totals?” he said. “It’s not a dull time. We really haven’t struggled the way everybody feared.”
“Media drives the betting business,” said Levy, whose site provides personalized sports-betting news and an integrated betting app. “It’s not the other way around.”
In response to an audience question about legal betting endangering the integrity of games, Gillespie said the issue is overblown, because such cases are rare. He cited international bodies, including one formed in the United States, that impose standards for integrity and pointed to the use of artificial-intelligence systems that can catch match fixing.
“America got it wrong” when it made sports betting illegal, he said. “We had this completely unique situation where a global, mature industry simply didn’t exist in the world’s largest economy. We’ve already seen the future here. We know exactly where this is going.”
Musburger said a troubling issue for the U.S. market is the amount of money bet on college athletics, where players aren’t compensated. “The risk of a large scandal in college sports could set back a lot of regulatory progress being made here,” he said. “It’s probably a largely irrational fear. But that is a potential danger for the business.”
Gillespie said the recreational side of the U.S. market will grow substantially in the next five to 10 years. As sports betting becomes even more normalized, people will approach it as a form of entertainment. Instead of sharp bettors who scour many sites looking for the best bargain or best odds, more people will want to bet small amounts quickly and easily. “That part of the market is underserviced at this point,” he said.
Levy said the key to success is making life easier for customers. “Sports is social, and betting is social,” he said. “It’s always been that way. You don’t have to invent it. You just have to facilitate it.”
