📺 Amazon Reportedly Planning a Standalone Sports App

Welcome to our new weekly cadence -- to your inbox Monday-Wednesday-Friday morning with news and updates in sports, gambling, and media. On Thursday, takes directly from our text threads.

Today, we finally reach the end of the suspended animation week between Christmas and New Year's...only to face the amateur hour that is New Year's Eve and the inevitable family New Year's Day party. Lord deliver us to January 3.

Speaking of which, we'll be cleaning up from the inevitable family party on Monday. Next send will be on Wednesday. Happy New Year in advance.

In the email today:

1) Amazon may be planning to launch a sports app.📱

2) Do you like betting on sports? Do you like having a cocktail? Do you like, er, gentlemen's clubs? Have we got a story for you. 😍

3) Sports franchise values weathered a brutal 2022 as ultra-wealthy individuals hemorrhaged cash. 🐻

In all seriousness, stay off the roads on Saturday night. 🥂

1) AMAZON'S PLANNED SPORTS APP A SIGN OF THINGS TO COME 💻

Amazon's entry into streaming live sports through its $11 billion deal with the NFL for the Thursday Night Football package was a fire bell in the night signaling serious change.

That change is coming faster and more significantly than you might have thought.

Quick hitter highlights from The Information, which broke the story:

• Amazon has initiated plans to create a one-off application that will carry sports content which will carry, minimally, Amazon's streaming content.

• Sports content continues to be irresistible to streaming services as its live, in real time quality compels consumers to subscribe for access and consumers continue to cord-cut at ever-increasing rates.

• Amazon could couple the standalone sports app with enhanced sports offerings on Amazon Prime in an attempt to draw more subscribers to the shopping platform.

• Amazon Prime currently runs consumers $14.99 per month, a figure that is apt to rise if Amazon continues to spend billions on sports rights acquisition fees.

• Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently called live sports "a unique asset," which is one of those throwaway phrases CEO's say when they're letting everyone know big things are coming.

Amazon has been tight-lipped to this point about the timing of the launch of any such sports-themed application.

You can get other sports on Amazon Prime, including an MLB.tv subscription through the service. And Amazon has a bunch of sports documentaries. But one would figure such an app would almost demand a bigger and more aggressive spend for other major sports rights.

2) COCKTAILS AND STRIPPERS AND SPORTS GAMBLING, OH MY! 👙

We're no prudes here at Raising Stake. What you do on your time is your business as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else illegally.

Still, even we had to take a step back and toss around the potential ramifications of this latest development from the District of Columbia.

Wait...what?

It's true. Per the bizjournals.com story:

• Elys Game Technology Corp. has received approval to establish a sportsbook at the Cloakroom Gentlemen's Club in Washington D.C.

• The sportsbook, called the Over Under Rooftop Lounge, will be the city's second located inside a bar or restaurant.

• Elys runs gambling operations in Europe and recently expanded into the U.S. to manage sportsbooks for restaurants in markets where sports gambling is legal.

• The Cloakroom sportsbook is a joint venture between Elys and Cloakroom's owners.

• D.C. legalized sports gambling in 2018 and full-service sportsbooks are currently open at several venues in the city, including Nationals Park, Capital One Arena, Audi Field, and Grand Central.

• The sportsbook is expected to create 15 new jobs at Cloakroom.

• At least two other D.C. restaurants and bars are looking to add sportsbooks in partnership with Elys.

Our take:

(hold on, we're trying to say this in a dignified, classy, respectful manner.)

An unnamed member of the Raising Stake staff notes the following: Given the choice between taking a thousand dollars into a casino and taking a thousand dollars into a gentleman's club, go to the casino.

Why? Because you might double or triple your money in the casino. Money only flows one way in the strippy.

Best of luck to all involved.

3) SPORTS FRANCHISES ARE AS VALUABLE AS EVER IN TURBULENT ECONOMIC TIMES 💰

We all know that economic conditions usually hit the wealthiest individuals hardest on an absolute basis. Not that their day-to-day changes (far from it). If a billionaire's net worth slides into the hundreds of millions, it isn't coupon-cutting time.

Additionally, some of these ultra-rich types have a tendency to be their own worst enemies. Think Elon Musk recently and Mark Zuckerberg for years now.

2022 was a turbulent year for many, but sports franchises continued to hold significant value and are poised to maintain same in the coming year. Consider:

• Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital paid $5.25 billion for Chelsea Football Club of the English Premier League, the highest-ever price paid for a sports team.

• Rob Walton, heir to the Walmart fortune, agreed to pay $4.65 billion to purchase the National Football League's Denver Broncos.

• The National Basketball Association's Phoenix Suns are in the process of changing hands for $4 billion.

• Rumors continue to swirl that English Premier League giants Manchester United Football Club and Liverpool Football Club are on the block.

The tie-ins to our first story are undeniable. There is a finite number of major sports franchises and leagues.

Buying into any of them in an entertainment landscape where traditional programming can now be binged whenever is in many ways the last avenue to buying an asset which can only appreciate.

More succinctly: sports command attention, and you can't put a price on attention. Well, you can, but it's got a lot of zeros.

JOB LEAD OF THE DAY 💰

It's tough to find a job that requires five years of relevant experience but does not require an advanced degree and which starts at $170K. We found it though.

Underdog Sports! "As the Director of Product for Sports Betting you will launch our first sports betting app and be an integral part of defining our future plans for the Sports Betting vertical. You will be directly responsible for managing a team of Product Managers (two to start) and will driver our roadmap and planning process. We're looking for someone with a passion for the sports betting industry who can help Underdog build an innovative and player friendly experience."

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON? 😎

• Predictably, the NFL's ratings on Christmas Day dwarfed those of the NBA's. 🏈

• When Dallas Mavericks All-Star Luka Doncic asked for a "recovery beer" after posting the NBA's first ever 60/20/10 game, a Slovenian beer company answered the call. 🍺

• A Louisiana attorney has spent somewhere just short of a million dollars on NIL deals, saying "anything worth doing is worth overdoing." ⚖️

WHAT TO KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR BEFORE THE NEXT SEND 👁️

• India is "seriously" considering a bid to host the 2036 Olympic Games. 🥇

• Major League Baseball will drop the FTX patches from umpires' uniforms in 2023. ⚾️

• PointsBet is considering selling its Australian trading business to gambling company Betr as PointsBet's dominoes continue falling. 💷