Barstool’s Big Bet
Game Changer
In 2020 Barstool Sports, the sports media juggernaut that forged the way for content publishers in the digital age, received a $180 million investment from Penn National Gaming, giving Penn a minority position in Barstool.
Penn owns or operates over 40 casinos and racetracks in North America. As gambling legislation continues to pass state by state, Penn has made strategic investments to ensure they are properly positioned to win as the new rules are established and the real money starts to roll.
Barstool was founded by Dave Portnoy back in 2003 as a weekly, self published sports gambling paper. It was perfect timing for the charismatic Portnoy as the digital landscape made it easier than ever to publish to large audiences. Barstool quickly embraced social media and digital channels to form a cult-like following, eventually maturing into a well rounded media company.
But Barstool’s alliance with Penn turns the millions of young sports fans into potential customers in what will no doubt become the most lucrative gaming environment in the world.
Just last week Barstool inked a deal with the Arizona Bowl, an unremarkable college football bowl game in Tuscon, AZ. A deal with anyone else would have fallen on deaf ears, but with the vision of embracing technology, social media, and the opportunity to bake gambling into the broadcast, Barstool might have just flipped the script once again and turned the Arizona Bowl into must-see TV.*
Television ratings are down across the board. Including live sporting events.
But Barstool isn’t a traditional media outlet, they don’t even have a television station. They reach people through a variety of outlets across the internet and social media. Assuming they go this route and lean in to what they do best, they will broadcast this game using their own OTT distribution channel. Whether that is on owned channels such as BarstoolSports.com or Barstoolsportsbook.com or they flood the zone and simulcast across all their social properties (Facebook, Instagram, Snap, TikTok, YouTube, etc…), or partner with an OTT provider focused on sports (and not afraid to introduce gambling, like Fubo.TV), this will not look like a traditional broadcast.
Betting on Barstool
Barstool is expected to bring gamification and gambling and bake it into the experience. We have seen traditional broadcasters begin to play with this by creating separate broadcasts that focus on the gambling aspect of the game, but never have we seen the ability to wager real money baked into an actual broadcast.
Barstool has a chance to make history. And if they do it properly, watching sports on television will never be the same.
Imagine with each snap, you are able to make a wager on what will happen on that play. We aren’t talking big money, small wagers, perhaps a limit of $5 per play. But over the course of a game, real money can be won… or lost. But the ability to use your phone and participate in the action would be a revolutionary experience for broadcasters and would attract a new audience to a huge variety of content, beyond just sports. Game shows would become participatory, instead of just watching Jeopardy! from the couch, you are playing Jeopardy! and maybe even winning Jeopardy!.
It wouldn’t matter if your favorite team is playing, because if you make a small wager on the next play, you now have a vested interest in the game. This is great for broadcasters that are looking to capture new audiences and ensure the audiences they have today stay with the broadcast.
A decade ago broadcasters biggest worry was the remote control. Today, it is the smartphone. If you take the time to observe someone watching a game, you will be amazed at the percentage of the time they spend on their phones. And the younger the person is, the more time they are lost to the smaller screen. The smartphone is often referred to as the second screen, but some would argue that the smartphone is the first screen and the televisions have been relegated to the second screen. By baking gambling into a broadcast, first and second screens will be working together. Instead of the smartphone being a competitor to the broadcaster, it will work as a compliment to enhance the experience.
As I have written about previously here and here, gamification of live sports requires low latency that can be delivered via OTT and not yet possible through traditional distribution such as cable or satellite. Barstool has all the parts in place, gambling license, OTT distribution, gambling and broadcast rights to a sporting event, and most importantly a captive audience that has shown a propensity to gamble on sports. When they secure the technology to add interactivity to their broadcast, Penn’s bet on Barstool will pay off bigger than any bet you can place in Vegas.
If you want to add gamification, gambling, or more interactivity to your content, you can reach me at jason.aspes@stream.live
