FuboTV dropped a shocking announcement with its decision to immediately close its gambling business, Fubo Gaming, and the Fubo Sportsbook product. FuboTV reported preliminary earnings results of over 1.2 million subscribers and income that exceeded its previous guidance.
In a world where advertising-supported media has struggled to scale steadily, and even the biggest subscription video giants are looking shaky, gambling has been seen as a reliable source of revenue in the years to come. FuboTV promoted Multiview tech to show multiple games at once in a single stream, as well as live sports broadcasts and games that launch from its home screen on viewers' TVs.
The Fubo Sportsbook was launched last year.
More than a wagering platform, Fubo Sportsbook is purpose-built to meet U.S. sports fans’ growing demand for interactivity through an industry-first integration of an owned-and-operated sports wagering platform with a live TV streaming experience. By integrating with fuboTV, the mobile app delivers a personalized omniscreen experience that turns passive viewers into active and engaged participants. Fubo Sportsbook is launching with a unique feature, Watching Now, which leverages fuboTV’s first-party user data to allow users to instantly view wagering content based upon what they are streaming — even as they change the channel. Fubo Gaming intends to continue iterating the app, launching additional features, subject to regulatory approval, that will further integrate wagering into the fuboTV platform, to create an even more immersive and personalized experience.
FuboTV launched free-to-play Pick'em Games that integrated with its live sports streams, promising the feature "demonstrates and further builds upon the seamless Watch/Wager/ Win connection between FuboTV and Fubo Sportsbook."
FuboTV said it would launch live odds this year. In December of last year, FuboTV's chief product officer said that betting is a core part of being a fan, making casual bets with friends and family, and it would make their product even more engaging than it is now.
According to co-founder and CEO David Gandler, the reason is that continuing with Fubo gaming and Fubo Sportsbook in this challenging macroeconomic environment would impact our ability to reach our longer term profitability.
The company sought partners to help cover the cost of launching gambling features but didn't find a deal that worked. In the last few months, there has been a production deal between FuboTV and the Ryan Reynolds-backed production company Maximum Effort.
FuboTV will release more detailed results and have an earnings call in November which may shed more light on the decision, but for now, I'm wondering what this means for other companies that have already launched gambling features If the economic environment makes people a little more cautious about their finances, or if regulatory approval isn't as easy to come by, then others could follow FuboTV's decision to turn out the lights on betting before they actually get started.
It is possible that one indicator will come very soon. The second-annual Edge conference is scheduled to take place on October 19th and 20th with a session titled "ESPN Bet - we like our hand."
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