📺 The NFL Now Owns 10% of... ESPN!

The David Beckham episode brought a lot of newsletter subscribers. Welcome to the 313 new readers joining this week!

Earlier this year I made a video speaking about the proliferation of gambling in the game today. I have never liked how prominent gambling is in football today and judging by the comments on that video, many agreed with me.

However, an unexpected side-effect of building this platform is realising how ripe my content is for gambling sponsors! I have been approached by alot of them recently and they offer fantastic money for ad integrations. The sums on the table for a 60 second ad on one of my YouTube videos makes me realise why so many Premier League clubs flock to them as their main front-of-shirt sponsors. It’s fascinating stuff.

Alas, a few quick hitters today. Some fascinating things are happening in the world of sport.

I don’t tend to cover American Sports but this week a ground-breaking deal took place in the US.

The biggest sports media property in the world, the NFL took a 10% stake in ESPN in exchange for ESPN taking complete ownership of the media arm of the league, NFL Media. It’s the first time I recall a Tier 1 sports league taking a stake in a prominent broadcaster.

NFL Media is big business. The acquisition will give ESPN ownership of:

• NFL RedZone (A very popular weekly show showing action from every NFL game at once)

• The NFL Network cable and streaming service

• The rights to seven additional regular season games

• NFL+ and

• NFL Fantasy Football

The wins for ESPN are pretty clear. They will soon launch their DTC service meaning fans can consume ESPN content without needing a traditional cable setup (more cord-cutting). By acquiring these properties ESPN have stacked the deck creating a very compelling reason to buy their direct-to-consumer app. They will be able to leverage their advertising sales team to advertise across these shows. In addition, they can now integrate their betting partners across these properties too which is becoming an increasingly lucrative part of American sports.

For the NFL, they manage to offload their media arm business. Despite being a big part of the league, the NFL will now no longer have to deal with the arduous day-to-day management of a media empire. No more content production, no more content ideation, no more talent negotiations, no more ad sales. They are now “free” to focus on expanding the league whilst maintaining upside via ESPN’s share price.

Earlier this year ESPN took a minority stake in the Premier Lacrosse League too showing a shift in how they are approaching media deals at the moment.

The English equivalent here would be the Premier League acquiring a stake in BSkyB/Comcast in exchange for Premier League Productions. I just cannot ever see that happening!

A fascinating development in US sports media.

Elsewhere, this image above of Chris Woakes walking out to bat in a sling will be etched in English Cricket history. What a fantastic summer of Test Cricket we’ve had here in the UK and what a fantastic result for the ECB.

Every single one of the five test matches went the full five days maximising 25 days of ticket sales and broadcast coverage. These matches are critical to the success of English cricket and this summer has been an excellent revenue-driver for the game.

Elsehwere, spare a thought for Sheffield Wednesday players.

A few weeks ago I wrote to you explaining how the dire situation at the club has led to several points deductions and transfer embargoes in recent seasons.

Well, this weekend the Championship returned to action and the Wednesday players took to the field without receiving any wages for the last three months.

As a recap:

1. The squad is owed wages

2. A stadium stand has shut down

3. There are several missed payments to HMRC

4. The manager has walked

They even cancelled a pre-season friendly because players refused to take the pitch.

It’s a sad state of affairs and The EFL is concerned they might not even finish the season.

In the NBA, the league can step in and force the sale of a team, like they did with Donald Sterling and the LA Clippers several years ago. There is no such mechanism like this in English football so who knows how this plays out.

Before we leave I want to give you readers the ability to influence the content I create. see below for some potential video ideas

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See you next week.