Who Are The Players?
The core of the convergence we’ve witnessed to date has centered around three industries – casino gaming, sports (teams and leagues), and media (broadcast). On the periphery, other players include companies from traditional and social/mobile video gaming, eSports, and financial services firms. To fully realize these benefits, the players will need to move both rapidly and strategically to create a well-executed sports-betting ecosystem. The expectation is that this will be accomplished through deals and partnerships to share technology, data, and brand resources. This convergence has the potential to tie together industries, creating a $135 billion ecosystem across advertising, media rights, gambling, and others.1 Already, several sports, gaming, and media companies have begun to pursue these partnerships, with high profile transactions like Penn National’s investment in Barstool, and Sinclair Broadcasting’s partnership with Bally’s Corporation. And the pace is accelerating, with 25 deals through August 2021 alone compared with 18 deals in all of 2019 and 19 in 2020.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE BY RICK ARPIN IN THE 2021 WINTER EDITION OF GAMING & LEISURE MAGAZINE.