No stopping DAZN TV deals despite Ligue 1 troubles
DAZN's Club World Cup rights vs. France challenges, US OSB hearing, Italy, Gaming&Go's Xmas Awards
Good morning, on Gaming & Co today:
DAZN lands €1bn Club World Cup TV deal but France is tough to crack
US: Sports betting under federal eyes in Senate hearing
Italy launches new gambling licences, advertising review to follow
The awards you’ve been waiting for all year: The Gaming&Co Awards 2024
NIBS: ZETurf, Netherlands, EGBA-Austria
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DAZN not slowing on TV deals but France shows challenges
Struggle to win over Ligue 1 viewers is impacting betting markets
Cash and challenges: Global sports streaming service DAZN continues to splash the cash, with the latest high-profile deal a reported €1bn agreement with FIFA to broadcast the expanded Club World Cup globally in 2025.
How much? Eyebrows were raised at the reported €1bn fee, especially as it’s on a free-to-view basis and given FIFA’s difficulties in selling the rights in the US, where Fox is believed to have bid just $10m.
Some observers suggested the move was influenced by DAZN’s potential Saudi investors. However, the Saudi Public Investment Fund went on record to deny investment conversations and did not comment on reports that the Club World Cup deal was linked.
The Club World Cup rights acquisition underscores DAZN’s ambitions to invest heavily in global sports broadcasting. But this has also raised questions about long-term profitability as its most recently reported results showed operating losses of more than $1bn in 2022.
French resistance: DAZN is also encountering a tough battle for subscribers in France. The protracted talks to acquire Ligue 1 rights were detrimental to all parties and for one industry contact, “the TV rights fiasco has been a disaster for French football”.
As a result, DAZN's offering has yet to catch on with many fans and illegal streaming of matches is widespread and easily accessible.
TV travails impact French sports betting
Ripple effect: Higher subscription fees and DAZN’s less-than-comprehensive offering – for example, it doesn’t have the rights to the 5pm Saturday fixture – add to the negative mood. In a recent poll of more than 1,000 French football fans by Odoxa, 54% said the limited access to games had reduced interest in watching Ligue 1. The ripple effects have reached France’s sports betting market.
Driving the market: Ligue 1 is a critical driver of betting activity and another industry contact told Gaming&Co that DAZN’s limited reach had led to “decreased engagement with the country’s top football league, although it has increased engagement in the English Premier League and La Liga in Spain”.
Another executive confirmed that “stakes on Ligue 1 have dropped while other European leagues are seeing increases in volumes”. They added that radio audiences for L1 were also down.
Big name departure: The negativity has been compounded by the departure of Kylian Mbappé to Real Madrid this summer. The French star’s name and reputation alone attracted audiences to Ligue 1.
There are rumours that DAZN might launch DAZN Bet in France, which would suggest it remains committed to integrating sports viewing and gambling, a strategy it has pursued in the UK and Germany.
Early exit: Subscriber numbers are a closely guarded secret, but the rumour that DAZN has just over 100,000 paying customers (the company denies this) would be far off its initial 500,000 target. The €50m bonus it would have received had it reached 1.5 million subscribers is also a long way off and speculation abounds that it will, in fact, leave the market after just one year.
While DAZN’s CWC coup signals its global intent, its French venture highlights the challenges of balancing major investments with local market realities.
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US hearing was much ado about nothing
Federal oversight is unlikely near term, but topic is also unlikely to go away
Much ado about nothing: Tuesday’s US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on ‘America’s High-Stakes Bet on Legalized Sports Gambling’ was inconclusive on whether federal regulation in the form of the SAFE Bet Act should be passed.
No action for now: The consensus among industry observers was that the event is unlikely to result in further action for now, but it showed that there was appetite for some form of federal oversight.
Key issues were athlete harassment, sporting integrity and advertising. NCAA President Charlie Baker and athlete representative Johnson Bademosi proposed a ban on college prop bets and a crackdown on black market operators.
Former New Jersey regulator Director David Rebuck was the only witness who came out strongly against federal intervention – not surprisingly as he was a key player in the New Jersey campaign that brought down federal prohibition.
Italy: new licensing regime, likely end to ad ban
New regime finally comes into force, review of advertising ban likely to lead to repeal
Nine-month process for nine-year licences: Italy has officially launched its new gambling licensing regime with nine-year online gambling licences available for a €7m licence fee and a concessionaire’s operating fee of 3%. Operators have until 30 May 2025 to file their application, with the licensing process expected to last nine months.
Operators must have legal or operational headquarters in the EEA, hold a valid licence and demonstrate total revenues exceeding €3m over the past two fiscal years. Each applicant can apply for up to five concessions.
No more dignity: Prior to the EU go-ahead, Roberto Alesse, the Director General of Italy’s customs and monopolies agency ADM, told Italian newspaper La Verità that the Dignity Decree, which restricts gambling advertising, will be reviewed in 2025 describing it as “hypocritical regulation” that “cannot be applied by a liberal state”.
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The Gaming&Co Christmas Awards 2024
So prestigious no one takes them seriously
All winners: Check out Gaming&Co’s Awards 2024 list and let us know if we missed any obvious candidates.
U-turn of the Year Award ↩️: DraftKings’ cunning wheeze to tax its customers is abruptly dumped after they complain bitterly and competitors rule out the idea.
Non-IPO of the Year Award: One spinoff too many for Games Global as $2bn listing is canned.
How to Make Friends and Influence People 👫Award: Playtech's innovative approach to customer care as it settles a two-year dispute with its biggest client Caliente.
Hypocrite? Moi? Award: Goes to DraftKings and FanDuel for having a go at the new DFS operators. Does anyone remember 2015?
M&A of the Year Award: Has to go to Française des Jeux for its €2.6bn buyout of Kindred Group. Good job Betclic didn’t get its hands on the Swedish group, eh?
Nerve-shredding 😰 News of the Year Award: France and its politicians… they should look across the Channel to see what political chaos does to a country.
Rebrand of the Year Award: Curaçao is trying a ‘rep reboot’ following regulatory pressure from EU 💶 countries, but the home of crypto gambling has work to do.
Update of the Year Award: Google (who else) almost took down the entire iGaming affiliate industry with new rules that hit affiliates hard.
iGaming Chutzpah of the Year Award: Some ne’er-do-well published a negative report on Evolution? The live casino 🎰 giant wants to know who it was!
Lobbyist of the Year Award: Howard Glaser, Head of Government Affairs at Light & Wonder, and implacable foe of sweepstakes, DFS and anything else that gets in his way. Glaser is a one-man lobbying machine all to himself.
News shorts
ZETurf, the number 2 horse racing operator in France, has launched an instant payments product for customers wanting to withdraw their winnings immediately. The group, part of ZEBet, which was acquired by FDJ in 2022, said it was the first racing operator to offer the service and that it would enable it to compete against market leader PMU.
The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) is urging Austria to change the “outdated” online casino monopoly system it currently works under. EGBA said the set up was putting players at risk, enabling a thriving black market and causing it to lose out on “hundreds of millions” of euros in tax revenues.
The Netherlands will present its updated gambling policy on taxes and the fate of Holland Casino to the country’s house of representatives in March next year as Google searches for the illegal sites rise in the market.
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