MLB Strikes New Deals With NBC, ESPN & Netflix; Jordan Spieth's 'Crush It Cup'

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1:25If you're playing money ball 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 Michael Bond. And I'm Damian Sassauer. We'll hear from Vanessa Perdomo later on in the show. Coming up, we'll talk with PGA golfer and three-time major winner Jordan Spieth. That's right. I said Jordan Spieth about his annual charity youth golf event and more. 2025 is a really good year for the PGA Tour. And so I think you focus on trying to make the best product that the PGA Tour can have.

2:04And then however else it's going to fall, it's going to fall. So we can't really control what's going on, you know, on the live side. It seems like they're happy with where they're at. But at some point, you know, they've showed interest in combining the game. We will also talk with the founder and CEO of Better, a gaming and sports media company. All that is on the way on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. But first, the MLB just reached new broadcast deals valued at around$800 million with NBC Sports, ESPN and Netflix. Here now to break it down is Bloomberg News media reporter Hannah Miller. Hannah, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports.

2:46Thank you for having me. And, of course, you always have brilliant articles. This one is on Major League Baseball and the new deals with NBC, ESPN, and Netflix. That's right. Yeah, we finally got word on what the media deals are going to look like for MLB. Well, isn't this the first time NBC is involved in like two decades or maybe even more, like 25 years? Yeah, I mean, we've seen a really big push with sports, with NBC. They want a lot of content. I mean, obviously, they're already a powerhouse, but they want to build out their portfolio even more. And this is just evidence of that. So how does this look?

3:25I mean, it sounds like the Home Run Derby and the opening day game go to Netflix. And then I guess ESPN has the rights to MLB.com. I mean, talk to us about the structure of the deal. Yeah, Netflix also got the Field of Dreams game, which is really fun. Yeah, and I think that that shows for them, you know, their push further into live sports. And we've seen with them, you know, Netflix, they don't always want to go for like a full season of a sport. They like those one-off events, those special things that you can tune into every now and then. So, you know, this is a nice get for them. For ESPN, you know, they're the ones that started all of this drama.

4:04You know, they opted out early of their original package. and what we see here now is they really reshaped it to their liking. So it's still the same price tag, that$550 million cost, but we see some major, major differences here and the emphasis is really on the streaming platform and kind of integrating MLB TV into ESPN's new streaming service. They're really trying to build that out, so that's a big asset for them. And then the other thing, too, is they wanted these more regional kind of feel. They wanted these local games, these local rights. So that's a good get for them, too. We've heard Jimmy Pataro, the chairman of ESPN, talk about that multiple times.

4:49Now, NBC and Peacock, we'll just call them Sunday because they're getting all the Sunday games. And it's not just Major League Baseball, right? I think it's NFL, NBA. I think they own Sundays now in many respects. Yeah, 100 percent. Yeah. And we've seen also Roku, you know, they those games from Roku have moved over now to NBC. So, yeah, I mean, Sunday is huge for them. I mean, NBA on Peacock has been has been going well. They've been really happy with that and, you know, really put a lot of effort into building a great fan experience with that. But again, like, you know, there's this constant issue of fragmentation, you know, making it hard for fans to know where to go, to where to watch their favorite teams.

5:33So I think that's still something a lot of sports fans are dealing with. And Hannah and Damien, that's just what I was going to say, because as Geezer Bar, I mean, it used to be very simple. You had three blasted channels, and if you had the fancy house, you got the UHF, and then you could tune in to anything you want. You had a myriad. Now, I don't know where the heck to go if I want to see my local teams or anything. Well, can't you just stream it directly from MLB now, I mean, and get them all? Or is that not an option? Because I know you're right, Michael Barr, in addition to Netflix, NBC, ESPN, you also have TNT.

6:10I think they have some games. I think Fox has some games. So, you know, as a consumer, where do you go, right? Yeah, it can make it easier, you know, if there's that strong regional network. Like, you know, I'm a Yankees fan, so I love Yes. And, you know, you know where to go. So with MLB TV, we've seen with some of these regional sports networks a lot of struggles. And MLB TV kind of absorbed the rights for several teams, or six overall, to kind of say, hey, here's where you can go to watch. So I don't know if we'll see more of that happening. I mean, there's still a big issue with regional sports networks trying to be profitable, avoid bankruptcy, things like that.

6:49And so this is a three-year contract, yes? So we're still looking at 2028 and, you know, a whole nother round coming through then. Is that right? That is right. So Commissioner Manfred, his big goal here was to get all of the rights to kind of expire at the same time. You know, Fox, their contract expires through the 2028 at the end of the 2028 season. So he's getting all these rights together so that they all go up at the same time. And then, you know, this will start another cycle of negotiations. But, yeah, that was that was his goal here was that, you know, everyone to be aligned in that three year window and so that they can kind of consolidate and get as big a package as possible three years out.

7:28And speaking of Commissioner Manfred, he says that he will cooperate with a Senate committee. And it involves the the latest in the big betting prop scandal that involves two Cleveland Guardian pitchers. Can you expand more on that? Yeah, so we know Manfred said the other day that he doesn't foresee more restrictions on these prop bets, you know, these sort of one-off bets. And there's that$200 cap on the bets. And they're hoping that kind of cuts into people's desire to place these kinds of bets and also for, you know, players like pitchers to not manipulate the situation to their favor. If you make the bets smaller, you know, people are going to be less interested.

8:12So I think they're hoping this kind of clears the clouds away. But these betting scandals, it's like hitting every sport. Well, I mean, you're right to bring it up, though, Michael Barr. I mean, we just had an incredible fall classic. I mean, the numbers I'm hearing out of that Dodgers-Blue Jays series are lights out, right? And this definitely, this betting scandal with Class A and Ortiz definitely takes some shine off that. I just wonder what comes next. We had the winter meetings. I mean, we have the GM meetings and all that stuff coming up. You know, what comes next as it relates to, you know, not just the betting scandal and how the Major League Baseball is going to react to that, Hannah, but some of these new kind of rules that are coming in, the automated strike ball kind of all that kind of stuff is happening as well now.

8:55Yeah, no, it's going to be really interesting to see what these conversations come up with, because I think there is a lot of concern among fans of any kind of sport, you know, just sort of this encroachment of betting. And we've seen with these new streaming services like, example, NBA on Peacock and be on Amazon, like there's all these betting integrations that really kind of are in your face about connecting betting to sports in a way that we haven't seen previously. So I think this is just going to be a conversation that comes up again and again. And again, it's not just baseball. There are other leagues as well.

9:34We've had problems with the NBA. Hey, as a general question, do we have a problem now with online betting in general? Because also overseas, they're having problems. Yeah, no, I mean, I think it's betting is just becoming more and more pervasive. We've also seen the rise of prediction markets and people getting on platforms like CalShe, you know, things like that, that make it really easy to place bets and gamble. You know, obviously, like there's always been a gambling culture in sports, but I think it's just so much more in your face now. I don't know. I just see gambling ads all the time. You know, I see it, you know, ESPN had betting integrations with their platform.

10:16Like this is just something that has come up again and again. Now, well, Hannah, you know, we convinced you to come in today and talk about Major League Baseball. But I wonder if we could look out a little bit. I mean, there's a lot of media deals that people are preparing to negotiate, right? What comes next in your world? What are you looking toward? I mean, I know we just got F1. We just got UFC. What comes next? Yeah, so Premier League is definitely something I'm tracking. And we're going to see who gets the rights there. I mean, obviously, it's super popular. So I think I'll be happy now.

10:53I think NHL is 28, right? Yeah. We should give a bit of time. Yeah. And yeah, no, UFC too. I mean, that was huge when that came out. That$7.7 billion price tag is insane. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, obviously NASCAR as well, right? But I think we have time. I think NASCAR, we just got negotiated out till 31. But, you know, it's just very interesting, you know, and I mean, like all these media deals seem to be, I remember the year, it used to be 10-year deals, you know, 15-year deals. Now we're talking two, three-year deals. It just seems really, really competitive, really, really interesting. And, you know, we look at the economy and we look at the stadium economy.

11:27And if things kind of slide back here, I wonder if, you know, these one after the other record-breaking deal after record-breaking deal, you know, start to peter off a bit. I don't know. What are your thoughts there? OK, it's also never too early to start thinking about NFL and whether that early opt-out is going to happen. Oh, they're definitely going to hit you. I knew I liked you for many reasons. So, you know, that is going to be a huge game changer, I think, in sports rights. And that's going to really set a tone because they're looking at that NBA deal, that massive 11-year deal. And they're like, OK, we got way more eyeballs.

11:59We got way more people watching us. And they're going to take that and run with it. So I think for the NFL, it's going to be really interesting to see what happens. It's going to be big, big money. I have to ask this because you brought up the UFC. CEO Dana White he wants to have a 30 million dollar challenge against the casinos and he says look we're going to air this on Netflix uh you give me 30 million dollars in credit and uh I can beat the pants off of you comments please okay I was at the UFC match on Saturday last Saturday and it was awesome it was a lot of fun and yeah for Dana White I mean he he knows he has a really valuable property.

12:43He knows people are tuning in. I think for him, he's very confident in what he has, the property he has. And that Paramount deal is just an affirmation of that. Our thanks to Bloomberg News media reporter Hannah Miller for joining us. Up next, we turn to the sprawling world of sports betting with the founder and CEO of a gaming and sports media company better. For Damian Sassauer, I'm Michael Barr. You are listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around the world.

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15:41Better is a sports gaming company that is building what it says is the world's first real money gaming super app. To tell us more about the company and for a check in how the sports gaming industry is navigating some of the latest headlines surrounding sports betting, is Better founder and CEO, Joey Levy. Joey, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. Yeah, good to be here. Thanks for having me, guys. Now, you are the founder and CEO of Better, and it is one of the gambling platforms that has made its debut. What is different, though, with Better compared to other gambling platforms? Yeah, I'd say Better is the first company in the space that's really pursuing a super app strategy across different real money gaming verticals.

16:32So we started the company about three years ago. We launched our initial product, Better Picks, only about two years ago. So we're a pretty new company in the space. And as I said, we started with Better Picks, but since then we've launched a couple of additional products. So we launched Better Arcade about two and a half months ago. Now, this is a skill games product where our customers are playing fun mobile games against each other. And, you know, whoever has the highest score in the game wins wins the stake that that each of the customers puts up. And then we've also launched a social sports book that that's currently live in 28 states, providing a pretty robust sports book experience for for sports fans across the country.

17:18And all three of these products, Better Picks, Better Social Sportsbook, Better Arcade, they're all in the same app. So, you know, unlike some of our competitors that have a portfolio of different apps where, you know, some major brands have as many as seven different apps that require different, you know, KYC and identity verification processes and have different wallets. We have everything consolidated in one app and a really seamless user experience going from one product to the next. And we don't plan on stopping at three products, right? We're going to launch at least two additional products over the next couple of quarters here.

18:00We haven't publicly announced what those products will be, but we're really excited about that. And, you know, by next NFL season, we'll have at least five distinct products all within the better super app, providing a really seamless experience for sports fans and gamers to go from one product to the next. And then I'd say another area of differentiation is, you know, our brand identity is, I'd say, a lot younger and fresher than some of the other companies in the category. You know, we really do well with, you know, Gen Z and kind of that 18 to 30 year old, you know, cohorts. as you probably know, started the business with Jake Paul, who, you know, really does a great job of appealing to that demographic and has a massive audience in that demographic with over 70 million social media followers, you know, across Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc.

18:59So I think in this category where, you know, you have these land-based casino operators that maybe appeal to millennials and older and even FanDuel and DraftKings, who are obviously the category leaders, but still maybe appeal to consumers in their mid-30s to late 40s and beyond. I think we do a good job of really catering to the next generation of sports fans through a lot of the content that we create on social media. Better is actually the most followed sports gaming brand on social media right now. And that's really enabled us to just, you know, appeal to a pretty differentiated player demographic.

19:41So I'd say those two things, the super app strategy with a really seamless user experience across this one-stop shop for gaming and a differentiated player demographic and brand identity with younger, you know, the next generation of sports fans, if you will. I want to get more into that part of it that you said there, the younger demographic and leaning on Jake Paul, your co-founder, like you had mentioned, his ability to speak to that generation. And when you guys were looking to found this company and you're looking to build it, how much of his vision was in that? And how much did you want to lean on this new audience and making it different?

20:21And how do you do that knowing there's already these legacy platforms out there? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, you just said it, right? These are legacy platforms. You know, I don't necessarily want to call out competitors by name, but, you know, there's some land-based casino operators that, you know, typically appeal to customers in their 50s, 60s, 70s, playing slots in Las Vegas, who aren't really even digitally native companies to begin with, that were kind of assumed to be, you know, the category leader. leaders when this market opened up. And as you can imagine, their brands and their content strategies on social media and across paid performance marketing channels, it just doesn't really, they're not really positioned to appeal to that next generation of sports fans who, you know, grew up on Instagram, grew up on TikTok.

21:15And, you know, to some extent, even FanDuel and DraftKings, you know, I think they do a better job than some of these land-based casino operators, but, you know, they kind of, you know, got their start in the early 2010s with that hardcore fantasy sports audience. And, you know, this was before Instagram was super mainstream. It's before TikTok was even existed. Right. So I think there's just we saw a pretty massive opportunity to build a differentiated brand from the ground up that really catered to this new generation of sports fans that has grown up with Instagram, has grown up on TikTok, that's grown up, you know, watching YouTube videos instead of, you know, linear television.

22:00So, so yeah, we've had a lot of success there. And we think better, despite, you know, launching our product only two years ago has established itself as the real money gaming brand for this generation. The interesting thing there, too, when you're talking about building out and appealing to that audience is you just recently partnered with the Ball Brothers and have a podcast with them. But that their podcast, from what I understand, that just recently launched is not necessarily about sports gambling and it's not about, you know, that sort of thing. So why have that extension as well on your platform?

22:36Yeah, I think we're trying to build not just like an on the nose sports gaming brand or even just an on the nose real money gaming brand. I mean, to be clear, like we are a real money gaming company and, you know, distributing that product and acquiring customers and retaining customers for that product is our principal objective. But we think there's an opportunity to build, you know, more of a more of a culturally relevant lifestyle brand that, you know, is kind of it transcends the current industry. I mean, like at a super high level, I think FanDuel and DraftKings have a combined roughly 10 million or so monthly active users, yet they're currently legal in front of at least over 100 million gambling age sports fans.

23:28And as the market matures and goes nationwide, we'll be closer to 180 million, 200 million. So my point is there's a pretty massive incremental TAM opportunity here. And I think that requires you to try to build a brand that transcends the current market and is just more culturally relevant and just is kind of synonymous with just entertainment and having fun with your friends, watching sports and just get people to resonate with the better brand along those lines. And chances are they'll realize, and by the way, we offer this amazing Real Money Gaming Super app and here's a free$10 to give it a try.

24:16And so far that strategy has been highly successful for us. I'd say we're almost certainly the most efficient company in the category with respect to acquiring customers. our customer acquisition cost this NFL season so far per first time depositor has been only$50, which, you know, is likely an order of magnitude more efficient than competitors. So the strategy has been working so far and we're going to keep doubling and tripling down on it. By the way, the name of the podcast with the Ball Brothers, Ball and the Family. That's clever. I like that. Boy, the way LeAngelo played. See what I did there?

24:56Yeah, I saw that. I saw that. Joey, where do you see the entire landscape of the industry for betting online? Where do you see that going in the future? I bring that up because, unfortunately, MLB, they're going through a period right now where they have lowered the prop bets for baseball because MLB asked them to because two Cleveland Guardian players were arrested. Where do you see that going in terms of the industry? Yeah, I'd say a couple of things. First, on that last point, I think that while there's been some disappointing developments or scandals, if you will, whether it be with the Guardians pitchers in Major League Baseball or what happened with the NBA players and coaches a couple of weeks ago.

26:05I think these developments are actually a really good reminder of why it's so important for gaming to be regulated and kind of above board and with a spotlight on it. Right. Because if the market were not regulated or if companies like, you know, better Vandal or DraftKings weren't working with integrity monitoring services and the data companies, these scandals would have never come to light. Right. So, you know, it's kind of this cooperation between the operators and and the leagues and law enforcement that you you have that that we kind of catch bad actors in the first place. And, you know, if this if this wasn't in the light, I you know, it's very possible that this stuff would be happening anyway and we just wouldn't know about it.

27:04So I just do want to clarify that while it's super unfortunate what's happened here, you're going to have bad actors regardless, unfortunately. So if anything, this is just proving that the current structure is working. So that's what I'll say about that. In terms of where I see the market going in the future, I don't think there's ever been a more exciting time to be building in real money gaming right now. Joey, you are too kind to join us. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. We really do appreciate your input. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me.

27:48Our thanks to Joey Levy for joining us. He is the founder and CEO of Better. Up next, we turn to golf. I said golf because Damien loves that. And we'll talk with three-time major winner Jordan Spieth. For Vanessa Perdomo, I'm Michael Bar. You are listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around the world.

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