🏟 Fanatics' Time Has Come

Fanatics Lands First NFL Stadium Sportsbook, Tom Brady Gets Dropped for a Huge Loss, Netflix Still Tiptoeing Around the Idea of Live Sports

Did you make New Year's resolutions this year? We never do. If you want to make positive strides in your life, pinning them to arbitrary dates is absurd.

That said, for many standard resolutions (losing weight, cutting back on drinking, working out more), right now is an absolutely optimal time to start. The holidays are over, so until the Super Bowl there won't be any triggers to over-eat or drink much. And the gyms, with the resolution crew long gone, have plenty of room for you.

January 13 is the new January 1. For me, anyway.

In the email today:

1) Fanatics is off the sports betting sidelines and will open its first sportsbook at FedEx Field this month 💰

2) Historical winner Tom Brady sustained heavy losses in the FTX crash 🤮

3) Netflix acquires broadcast rights to SAG Awards live streaming broadcast, and some are asking whether this a test run for live sports in the future 💻

We just realized it's Friday the 13th. Maybe wait until tomorrow for that gym run. 🏋️‍♀️

1) FANATICS TAKES ITS FIRST STEP INTO SPORTS BETTING ARENA 💵

Michael Rubin has been direct and plenty confident about what he sees as the path to significant profit in the sports betting market for Fanatics.

The first domino will fall next week as Fanatics opens not only its first sportsbook, but the first sportsbook in an NFL stadium, at FedEx Field. If only the Washington Commanders had made the playoffs.

Front Office Sports broke this story, and Owen Poindexter's write-up has all the details you need:

  • Fanatics will open its first sportsbook in FedEx Field in Landover, MD on January 20.

  • Fanatics has not applied for a mobile betting license in Maryland as of yet, though that cannot be far off.

  • There is nothing like being first, and the NFL is the biggest sports property in the US. Fanatics claiming the first sportsbook inside an NFL stadium is therefore a massive coup.

  • With the addition of the book, fans of all three major D.C. teams (Commanders, Nationals, Wizards) can wager in-stadium.

OUR TAKE

For the present, anyway, this development is as much splash as it is impact. As we noted, the Commanders missed the playoffs. The launch of this sportsbook at FedEx Field would have meant more if the Commanders were hosting a playoff game the day of the launch.

It shouldn't be surprising that Fanatics was first in the hallowed halls of an NFL stadium. Rubin has done a better job networking with league execs - thanks to his long involvement in apparel - than anyone else in gaming. There is not another gambling executive with the history and trust of the leagues than Rubin. Full stop.

2) YOU HATE TO SEE IT! TOM BRADY SUSTAINS HEAVY LOSSES IN FTX COLLAPSE 🖥

It's not that we actively root against the interests of guys like Tom Brady. There is plenty of success in the world for everybody. But boy, I'd snickered a bit on this one.

Mike Florio wrote the story up for profootballtalk.com:

  • The New York Post got hold of the court documents filed with reference to the FTX bankruptcy, and Brady owns more than 1.1 million shares of FTX.

  • As if Brady's ex-wife, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, didn't already have enough reason to dislike him, she's stuck with nearly 700,000 shares of her own.

  • Forbes estimated the value of Brady's interest to have risen as high as $45 million prior to the collapse.

  • The big unknown is how much liquid capital Brady poured into this venture. He may have received equity for promoting it at the outset, either a percentage of FTX or a passel of stock shares.

Day's end, though, no matter whether Brady's losses were on paper or if they were actual paper, this outcome is real to him.

As recently as October of 2022, Cosmopolitan speculated that Brady's net worth was around $250 million.

So if the Forbes number is actual capital as opposed to funny money, Brady's net worth took just under a 20% hit in a manner of days.

Even Brandon Graham and Nick Foles didn't do that sort of damage to the Brady brand.

3) NETFLIX ACQUIRES BROADCAST RIGHTS TO SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS, MAY SEE THIS LIVE STREAM AS A DRY RUN FOR LIVE SPORTS DOWN THE LINE 🎥

Netflix doesn't seem to know what it wants.

Last month, we heard from Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos that live sports wasn't a priority for his company. Sarandos said that earning money from sports broadcasting is "built around the economics of pay television, which are different than streaming."

He means that networks can justify the ludicrous costs because it helps support other network content and, you know, generally keeps them around.

The line that got all of the attention: "We're not anti-sports, we're just pro-profits." Mmmkay.

So then what is Netflix doing acquiring the live stream rights of, of all things, the Screen Actors Guild Awards? That's what Jordan Valinsky of CNN Business would like to know:

  • The SAG Awards will stream on Netflix on Sunday, February 26.

  • This development is in line with the switch the Academy of Country Music Awards made from CBS to Amazon Prime Video in 2022.

  • Netflix is also set to stream a live Chris Rock performance on March 4.

  • Netflix continues to profess reticence about overspending to acquire live sports rights.

OUR TAKE

If Netflix doesn't want to become the Blockbuster Video of streaming, it needs to make some effort to join the party with Amazon Prime and Apple. Like Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut-- just put a mask on and see where it goes.

This moment is an inflection point for Netflix. If it proves that it can capably stream the SAG Awards and a Chris Rock show, it's not like broadcasting live sports is all that much harder.

As one of our wise uncles once said, "you can't pick up what you didn't put down."

More succinctly: Notably, the Golden Globes just got laughably bad ratings, so this isn't like some major coup for Netflix. It feels like a test.

JOB LEAD OF THE DAY 💰

Everyone wants to start at the top. That's the trouble with the young people today...but we don't have to have that conversation right now.

What we will say is that the path the the top normally starts a lot closer to the bottom, and that's where this job lead comes in.

Account Executive, Ticket Sales — Delaware Blue Coats. This isn't a job you will wildly impress your friends with, but it is absolutely the sort of job that sets you up to get to the big leagues.

This job has all of the standard responsibilities. You need to sell tickets to new clients. You need to work home games and cater to (and upsell) existing clients. There's also something about "creative lead generation," which could mean a lot of things.

All we know is the Blue Coats' parent club, the Philadelphia 76ers, are a Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment property. And whether the 76ers win or lose, HBSE always seems to be making money.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON? 😎

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

This email was compiled today by the Raising Stake staff. Jason and Kyle contributed. Images from Getty.

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