Betting on the Big Game, Super Bowl LX

0:01Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcast Radio News.

0:30is a bulletproof business. Racing's unique because there is absolutely no reason why we can't compete with the guys. Come on, is pro pickleball real? Are people really going to tune into this? If you're playing Moneyball with a huge bag of money, you're going to be really, really good. Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Vanessa Perdomo. And I'm Randall Williams. You know Randall as Bloomberg Business of Sports reporter and of course a friend of the show. but he's here joining me this week on the ground in San Francisco covering Super Bowl 60.

1:03Coming up today, we will speak to two of the greatest wide receivers of all time, Jerry Rice and Terrell Owens, as well as young quarterbacks in the game who are making waves in the league. That's straight ahead on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. But first, we check in with Bay Area Host Committee CEO Zaylene John-Mohamed on how they prepared the Bay Area for the big game. Zaylene, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. Tell me how you are feeling right now. I feel a little bit of relief that we're finally here. I'm really excited. And there's so much energy in the market. And that's, you know, it's great for the Bay to feel that.

1:42But it's also really great for visitors who are coming in to see everything that the Bay Area has to offer. So I'm excited. It's been awesome. And tell me more about how everything is spanning across the different areas of the Bay, right? because the game on Sunday is quite far from where we are right now in downtown San Francisco. Yeah, so the stadium's in Santa Clara. I think it's about 60 miles from San Francisco. You know, obviously the home of the 49ers, so people who live here know kind of how to travel back and forth from wherever they are into the stadium. But we've been really intentional throughout this process together with the NFL to make sure that the entirety of the Bay is represented.

2:17That's important to us. We have nine counties here, a lot of diversity across those counties, a lot of different types of people, a lot of people that want to show fans that are not from here who they are and how to be from Oakland, what Oakland vibe and style looks like, how to be from the South Bay, what that looks like, what the food is like. It's all different all the way across the region. And so we wanted to make sure that the events were spaced out so you could see that if you were visiting. So opening night was in San Jose. We had a supplier diversity event on Sunday night. That was in Oakland.

2:47Last night was media party. That was on the peninsula. Obviously, now we're in San Francisco. We'll go back to Santa Clara for the game, and then we go to Oakland for a watch party. So we're trying to use as much of the bay as we possibly can. I think it's actually really good for the region. So it's obviously an advantage to have all those different pockets, but I can imagine there's also a really hard way to really kind of figure that out. I mean, operationally, we have to be really tight, right? Because you don't want people to spend their time commuting if you can help it. And so there's an operational plan that we have to put together, like how are people going to get from place to place?

3:20Last night, we went from Pro Bowl in San Francisco to the media party, and it was about a 30-minute ride. Where are your buses getting picked up? Which lane of the highway are you going to use to get? All of those types of things are part of the planning process. And to make sure that when you get to that media party, it's an awesome experience, right? So that you feel like this was something worth it to go to. So we're trying to think about all of those facets of when you're trying to move things out, making sure that that experience is really good. Yeah. Yeah. So tell me more about the economic impact that the entire Bay is looking to see.

3:53Yeah. So we've had a few events here, right? We had the NBA All-Star Game here last year at this time, NWSL Championships here in November, Super Bowl this week, and then the FIFA World Cup coming in the summer. Across all of those events, I know, it's crazy. It's a lot. It's a lot. Across all of those events, about a$1.4 billion economic impact into the region, which is necessary, important, builds back our small businesses, and really helpful for a market that understandably had a rough time during COVID. And it's our job and responsibility to help kind of revive the Bay. But in addition to just economic impact, for me, it's about the societal impact and the community impact that comes through these events.

4:32It's how people who live here feel about how they represent the region. I want them to walk around with more swagger and more pride. And they should, because you win these events. That's something to be really, really proud of. And it's what we give back to our community, right? So this morning I was in East Palo Alto. We opened up a new field for all the kids that live there. First ever full-size football field in East Palo Alto, which is home to a number of NFL players that have been raised out of that community. And just things like that that have legacy impact that's not economic in nature, but helps build youth into great, hopefully football talent, but just human beings in the future.

5:09I think it's interesting, you know, when you're talking about that, and also the idea of hosting so many events and making that intentional with the$1.4 billion impact and what that really means and why sports is a big driver for economics and for you guys. Why was that important? Yeah, sport is one of those things that just brings people together and it's hard to say no to, right? There's always either the sport itself because you're a fan of the sport and or the community that it builds around that sport. And so I talk about this a lot as like my own family, right? My kids are big sports fans.

5:44I'm a big sports fan. My mom, maybe not so much, but she'll come together when the community comes together because she likes the food and the music and all the things that surround it. And that is important just in bringing community together and helps make society thrive when communities do come together. And so I measure it in so many different ways, like the money that comes into the region, but all of the qualitative things that are important for a community to actually build and grow. Yeah. So obviously you have the Super Bowl and the World Cup coming up. When you're looking at these massive events, there's operational things that you have to say, figuring out logistics to go from here and there.

6:19But tell me more about the security operations that have to be put into place for events like this. Yeah, Super Bowl is a great example, right? This is a SEER 1 event, they call it. I think it's the second highest rating in terms of the federal ratings of safety and security, meaning that it is an event that people are paying attention to. And for us, safety and security is the highest priority. You want people to come into this market to feel safe, to make sure that they can enjoy it in a way that they're not worried or scared. It takes all three levels of government to make that happen. So we are working with federal government, state officials, local government and PD.

6:53All those groups come together, together with the NFL and with us, to make sure that we are very coordinated in the things that we're planning. And that make people actually, as they're walking around any part of the Bay, they feel really safe. That was Bay Area Host Committee CEO Zaylene John-Mohamed. Now we're going to check in on the real big money around this game, sports betting. This year could likely see another record-breaking year for sports betting across the country. On that, we speak with FanDuel President Christian Janinski. Christian, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. Tell us about the volume that you're going to see this week.

7:25We will see a lot of volume this week. I think industry-wide, we're thinking about most projections are around$1.7 billion in the legal, regulated market on this game alone. And we will be, as the market leader, a big chunk of that. How does that compare to last year and over the last couple of years, year over year? It continues to grow each year. I mean, it'll be up, I think it was in the sort of 1.4-ish last year. So, you know, we'll continue to see more. and hopefully as we get more and more states legalized and eventually someday a state like California will have legal and regularized sports betting, we will just continue to see the number going up.

8:03So as that happens, obviously we're in the Super Bowl here in San Francisco, next year is also in L.A. As you plan the Super Bowls around states that don't have the legal sports betting, how does that really work for you guys and how does it impede you guys? If you think about it, the vast majority of our customers are going to watch the game at home on their couch. That's where I'll be watching the game this year as well. And so a lot of our work around the Super Bowl is really aimed at those customers. And so for them, kind of the theme for us this year is it's the last call for football. I'm always sort of sad already that football is going to be over in a few short days.

8:39And so in the lead up to the game, we've been offering daily odds boost to our customers. You come back every day for a different odds boost on the Super Bowl. So we're building up to that online. We do have a big presence here, but a number of customers who are out here for the week with us. But again, the vast majority of our customers are going to be playing from home. Obviously, it's the biggest week of the year for sports betting. How do you strategize around that, knowing people are going to be across all the platforms? How do you make sure you guys are unique in that way? Yeah, I think we build off what we've been doing all year.

9:11So we have our play your game platform. We've got our Super Bowl ad this year is going to run immediately before kickoff. so we're not going to be during the game. And again, as I said, it's a fun take on it being the last. It's a bar scene. It's the last call for football. And it's sort of a toast to the football season as the last thing you'll see right before we go to kickoff. And so, you know, I think we're fun. We invest a lot in our product. We have a lot of things that are a bit unique to us, like live drive, same game parlay. So as you're watching in the game, say you bet on the Seahawks before the game started and the Patriots have a big lead.

9:45Most of America doesn't want to see that, of course. But if we're in that situation, you can bet drive by drive during the game and just sort of start over if you feel like Seattle's gaining some momentum. You know, bet on a JSN over on that drive along with a Sam Darnold over and try to get yourself back in the game. Well, like you said earlier, it keeps growing, right? Every year over year, I mean, an extra$300 million projected this year over last year. What is it that isn't just adding more states, or how do you continuously grow in the states you've already been able to operate in? So one obvious path to growth is that we just launched earlier in December of last year in the state of Missouri.

10:22So we went from having no business in Missouri to the state being open. So you get sort of catapulted with growth from new states. But we also, in our existing states, continue to grow. New Jersey was the first state we launched in 2018. We're still seeing year-over-year growth. We have new people coming onto the platform. I think we're now at a point where 50 % of the country by population and 50 % of the states have access to mobile, online, sports betting. And so we advertise more nationally now. We advertise in Super Bowl. We advertise during NFL football, NBA. And so people are much more aware of FanDuel generally.

11:01And most people, even if you're in a state where it's not legal, most people travel these days. And so we have a lot of account holders who, when they go visit for work or for pleasure to a different state, they'll set up a FanDuel account. They're familiar with it. A lot of our users in Missouri were people who already actually had a FanDuel account because they'd used it someplace else. And so now it's in their state. Now they can bet from their couch, too. Yeah, absolutely. So how much of the year's revenue is based on this year? I mean, how much of your business can you really account for?

11:31On this game? Yeah. So it depends on the outcome of the game. And unfortunately, we want our customers to do well. We want them to have a good experience. If we were only rooting for FanDuel's outcomes, you would see a low-scoring game with a lot of field goals. And the only touchdown score is being the backup tackle on a tackle eligible, which we realize is not the most fun game. But for us, it will depend. The revenue will depend on the outcome. I mean, if you have a super high scoring game where the biggest stars, JSN has 150 yards and two touchdowns and Kenneth Walker scores and Drake May has a big day on the ground, that's not going to be as good a day for FanDuel.

12:11But we really think about the Super Bowl as the biggest day to celebrate sports. And we're a sports entertainment company. We want our customers to have a good experience. It's not going to be the last day that they spend with us. And so, you know, we really think about the Super Bowl as a time to have everybody's eyes on us, really spend time in the app. Remember why it's fun to have your own stake in the game and they'll be back around. So it's more of a big, big event, a big draw for customers. That was FanDuel President Christian Janetsky. Up next, two of the greatest wide receivers of all time, Jerry Rice and Terrell Owens.

12:48That's straight ahead on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. For my co-host, Randall Williams, I'm Vanessa Perdomo. This is Bloomberg.

12:59This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports, where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Vanessa Perdomo, joined by U.S. sports business reporter Randall Williams. He's filling in for Michael and Damian this week. We're on the ground in San Francisco for Super Bowl 60. Now we catch up with two of the greatest wide receivers of all time. First up, three-time Super Bowl champion Jerry Rice. He's joined alongside NetApp Chief Marketing Officer Gaby Boko. This is like your 100th Super Bowl week at this point, right? How are you feeling?

13:36No, man. You know, every Super Bowl is special. Super Bowl 60. You got to think about that. And I would have loved for my San Francisco 49ers to be participating right now. But you've got two great teams with the Patriots and also the Seahawks. Gabi, you're here with NetApp, of course. I want you to tell me what you're doing that's special with Jerry, with the NFL. What makes you and your company brilliant? Oh, I love that. You know, NetApp is a data company. We believe that data powers everything, and especially when you think about what it does for the NFL and what it does for the 49ers, and especially as it comes to life for Super Bowl 60, data is behind everything, right?

14:20This is the most intensive data sports moment for data in sporting. And what NetApp does is it basically creates this layer of what we call an intelligent data infrastructure. It's basically what moves that data and allows the players and the coach and fans ultimately to experience the game at a high magnitude. I think what's really important, though, when we partner with Jerry is when you think about players like Jerry on the field at a Levi's Stadium, this is a guy who has so many stats that have broken records. That kind of data combined with a field like Levi's Stadium, you've got kinds of data that really tells our story really well.

15:04So that's why we partner with Jerry. That's what we're excited about with Super Bowl, and that's why we're here. Well, listen, I think you're going to be partnering with Jerry forever because some of his records are just not going to be touched. I agree with you. We agree. 22 ,000 receiving yards, it's just not going to be touched. No one's going to play as long as you did, at the level you did, as long as you did. I played for such a long time because I actually love playing football. Sure. You know, I didn't play for the money. I didn't, you know, I didn't play for the stats and all of that.

15:31But I feel like I owed the fans something that was unique. Like, you know, anytime you paid your hard-earned money to come to a football game, I wanted you to witness something that was going to be real special. I wanted you to leave that stadium and say, oh, my God, did you see him make that catch or score that touchdown or whatever. Now, for you, Jerry, with NetApp, a lot of data. If you had the data. If I had this. If I had NetApp back in the day and to have all that information right in front of me and be able to get that information so quickly and stuff like that, maybe I would have been able to double all my stats.

16:10You think you would have had 40 ,000 receiving yards? Yeah, from the 22 ,895 yards, the 1 ,549 reception, the 208 touchdown, the 37 records or more, I would have doubled that. So now tell me the ways that NetApp and Data are impacting athletes in ways that they don't know. Because we see a lot of teams hire data officers and bring in people from analytics. How is that impacting athletes from behind the scenes? You know, I think it's really how the coach takes what their strategy is and is using what the sensors are that are on players now, what's happening inside the stadium, and pulling all that together.

16:49And I would say the big driver for how to use data is AI right now. So when you think about how to bring AI into, let's say, the Super Bowl, Levi's Stadium data center, you're looking at it in not just 3K, 4K, you're looking at it in 4D. And that's going to help players change how they throw, how they run, how they catch, how they partner with their teammates on the field. And that's going to help coaches define the plays even better. We'd like to say that's the invisible layer, and that's truly the case. It allows players like Jerry to shine. All right. So why are you partnered with the NFL? Let's ask.

17:26I want to ask that because of the fact that. The hard question? It's the NFL experience. Amen. That's it. It's the NFL experience. You can speak to this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you're taking football global. Yeah, you're taking it global. I don't care. It could be Silicon Valley. It could be any continents. It's just making it so accessible for the fans, which I feel like it plays a very important role. That is absolutely the truth, right? When we look at how we tell our story, we want to make it approachable for everybody. And there's no greater base of customers slash fans than the NFL. Roger Goodell's mentioned 16 international games.

18:05Is that good for players? Do you think players actually want to travel, not every single week, but to be going to Spain and to Paris and potentially Italy and Australia and so many other places? Do you think that's good for players? No, I can't really speak on that for everyone. But if I was playing, I wouldn't have a problem with it. You wouldn't have a problem with it? No, because I love playing football. I was one of those guys that actually went to training camp with the rookies, and I was a veteran. So I was always ready to go. But, you know, that's going to have to be decided. But, yeah, if it was me, I would do it.

18:44And, Gabby, tell me a little bit about what NetApp is doing in terms of the international growth and the presence that you all have, not just domestically, but overseas? Well, we definitely partner with the NFL as the presenting sponsor and partner of most of their, if not all, their international games, including their expansion games, which are being announced.

19:06Against his wish list. But we do it because we thought it was an important move because the NFL is spreading this fandom globally. And there are, as Jerry said, fans in countries that, you know, at the U.S., sometimes we kind of think of ourselves, you know, we do one thing. The NFL has fans everywhere. And we want to be part of a team and a company that takes that and expands it because data sets has no boundaries, right? And nothing says that better than a sport that has fans around the world. So I think it's a great opportunity for the NFL. It's a great opportunity for the players. And who doesn't want more fans?

19:43That was three-time Super Bowl champion Jerry Rice and NetApp CMO Gaby Boko. Sticking with Hall of Fame wide receivers, a ring eluded him in his career, but he is still considered one of the greats. We catch up with NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens. Terrell, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. So we're in San Francisco. Like I mentioned, you started your career here. When you come back, you know, I imagine obviously you've been back since you were playing days, but when you do come back, is there always a certain sense of nostalgia, certain emotions that come up for you? Not a lot of emotions.

20:14I mean, I wish I would have won a Super Bowl here. You know, I tried my best, you know, my damnedest to do my part, to get the team what's been so elusive over the years. And I know the Niners, they've been knocking at the door over the last few years and haven't been able to get over that hump. But they've been plagued by a number of injuries, which obviously you play this game and you follow it. You know that it's kind of like not how you start, it's how you finish. And when you lose key players and you have key players injured and playing through injuries throughout the course of the year and they're not playing to their max, they're not playing at a 100 % level as the beginning of the season, it's hard to win.

20:56And I think with them, they have some pieces I think they need to acquire at the receiver position. They have some nucleus of guys by committee. They're still developing, Purcell. Jawan Jennings, he's been kind of like their most consistent receiver, but he's not the dynamic receiver to take the top off that they need at that position. But when I come here, man, obviously coming up to 101 from the airport, I was telling someone, I'm like, man, I used to look off to the right and see when we used to drive to the stadium, you used to see that stadium off in the horizon, but now it's gone. There's no more.

21:31So, yeah, so just being here, obviously, like I said, I have some ties here. had some iconic moments, some legendary moments here. Obviously, a lot of people remember the catch that I made against the Green Bay Packers. And then also a lot of people remember, you know, obviously the moment that I signed the football with a Sharpie. Obviously, you see my jacket here. So I partnered with them just recently with their Rook of the Year campaign. So they got some candidates, Rook of the Year, Roma Duse with the Bears, and obviously T-Mac. So they're making their marks on the field, you know, trying to kind of replicate and do some of the things that I did on the field.

22:06I don't know if they're doing it as good, but I kind of set the standard. So everybody, like I said, remembers that game. Like I said, it's been replayed over and over. I don't know if particularly during the Super Bowl year, but throughout the course of the year, obviously, when you have different matchups and you talk about touchdown celebrations, that celebration always comes up and everything. Well, how did that happen? Honestly, it was impromptu, and there was nothing premeditated about it. literally just on the sideline right before I went out in the next series. Like, hey, Doc, that was one of the guys who's currently still on the staff with the Niners now.

22:39I asked him for a Sharpie. He gave it to me, and then I put it in my sock, and he was waiting for me to give it back to him. I guess he thought I was going to either black something out or write something on my tape or something, which a lot of players do. And I'm like, no, I'm good. You can go ahead. So he left, and then I knew the confidence that I had in myself and my abilities, I knew that I was going to score on the next series going out. And surely enough, I did. And, yeah, what was so ironic about it, we had a mutual friend, Sean and I, Sean Springs, who I scored on. We have a mutual friend, Greg Eastman, who I think does some business work with Sean.