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Speaker 1: This is the Business of Sports.

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Speaker 2: Sports are the greatest unscripted show owner.

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Speaker 3: The next generation of players who really grew up with

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Speaker 3: tech and believe in tech. Your face is your ticket,

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Speaker 3: your face is your wallet, your face is your access

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Speaker 3: to a club.

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Speaker 4: These are such iconic and important buildings for businesses.

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Speaker 5: For fans, COVID was one of the best things that

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Speaker 5: ever happened to go.

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Speaker 2: The NFL is a bulletproof business. Racing is unique because

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Speaker 2: there is absolutely no reason why we can't compete with

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Speaker 2: the guys. Well, it's pro pickable. Real are people really

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Speaker 2: going to tune into this?

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Speaker 6: If you're playing moneyball with a huge bag of money,

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Speaker 6: you're going to be really, really good.

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.

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Speaker 7: This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports, where we explored

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Speaker 7: the big money issues in the world of sports. Michael

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Speaker 7: Barr along with Damian Sassaur and Vanessa Perdomo. Coming up

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Speaker 7: on the show, we'll talk a little fantasy football. Rotor

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Speaker 7: Wire founder Peter Shanky joins us to talk about the

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Speaker 7: booming industry of fantasy sports as we head into another

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Speaker 7: NFL's easy.

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Speaker 3: The number one thing I could tell any fantasy whether

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Speaker 3: they're a new person or advanced, is really study up

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Speaker 3: on the rules in the format you're playing a game

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Speaker 3: you're not trying to actually, you know, play the real NFL.

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Speaker 7: That is on the way on the Bloomberg Business of Sports.

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Speaker 7: But first we will take a look at a few

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Speaker 7: recent headlines in the sports media world. Netflix is continuing

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Speaker 7: its push into live sports and just inked a deal

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Speaker 7: to broadcast the twenty twenty six World Baseball Classic. Plus

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Speaker 7: ESPN is creating a new bundle that could get football

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Speaker 7: fans red Zone at about forty dollars per month. Joining

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Speaker 7: us to discuss all that and more is Bloomberg News,

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Speaker 7: Media and Entertainment reporter Hanna Miler. Hannah, Welcome to the

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Speaker 7: Bloomberg Business of Sports.

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Speaker 8: Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 7: This is gonna change the way this old geezer watches TV.

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Speaker 7: ESPN online bundle with red Zone NFL network to cost

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Speaker 7: forty dollars a month. Is this the way now we're

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Speaker 7: gonna watch TV and the cable that's gone?

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Speaker 8: You know, they're they're putting out this option for people

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Speaker 8: who are cord cutters and coord nevers, you know, people

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Speaker 8: who are not interested in cable, but they still want

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Speaker 8: to have these cable options for people. So it's not

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Speaker 8: going to go away completely. But you know, if you're

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Speaker 8: young in your twenties you're looking for a way to

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Speaker 8: watch sports, this might be the best option for you.

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Speaker 4: I just it's so interesting to me, Hannah, because I

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Speaker 4: feel like this conversation still keeps coming up, so pops

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Speaker 4: up every single time these deals are signed. Now we

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Speaker 4: have all these fractured different things that we have to buy.

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Speaker 4: Do these leagues and the commissioners and the owners just

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Speaker 4: not care that their fans have to now go to

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Speaker 4: five different places to watch the games.

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Speaker 8: You know, it's all about the dollar signs for them.

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Speaker 8: And I think some of these deals they might not

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Speaker 8: be the most convenient for fans. And it's not like

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Speaker 8: you know, you're switching channels going from you know, sport

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Speaker 8: sport game to game. You have to like log out

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Speaker 8: of the app, pick a new one, go in. It's

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Speaker 8: not going to be the same experience for people. And

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Speaker 8: you know, you've seen like ESPN has tried to have

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Speaker 8: a portal to show like where you can watch stuff.

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Speaker 8: I think the big money maker would be having some

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Speaker 8: kind of tool that would allow you to transition between

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Speaker 8: streaming platforms easily and that would really help people.

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Speaker 2: Hannah. There's just really one channel that matters. That's Channel

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Speaker 2: eight thirty five. That's the Red Zone network where you

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Speaker 2: get seven hours of commercial free football. What happens Tomman

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Speaker 2: Scott Hanson after this deal, I mean, is he going

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Speaker 2: to get paid? I mean what goes on?

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Speaker 4: Yeah?

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Speaker 8: So you know there there definitely are changes happening. But

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Speaker 8: I know that they're really trying to, you know, keep

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Speaker 8: the Red Zone culture, keep things familiar to fans. It's

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Speaker 8: really just going to be this bundle add on that

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Speaker 8: you can have with the ESPN streaming package. So instead

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Speaker 8: of just paying thirty dollars flat for you know, getting

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Speaker 8: all of the ESPN's networks, you can add an additional

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Speaker 8: ten dollars and get access to Red Zone.

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Speaker 7: Major League Baseball is doing the happy dance because they

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Speaker 7: scored a lot of great new TV deals. Talk more

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Speaker 7: about that.

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Speaker 8: So it's not finalized yet. The ink is not dry,

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Speaker 8: but we're hoping to get more information next month. But

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Speaker 8: there's been a lot of speculation, a lot of reports

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Speaker 8: out there, and the way things are looking right now,

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Speaker 8: it's a huge win for Major League Baseball. They are

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Speaker 8: getting a lot of money from a lot of different partners,

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Speaker 8: and even ESPN, who's the reason that these rights went

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Speaker 8: up for grabs. You know, they did that early opt out.

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Speaker 8: They are still working with MLB and they're working on

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Speaker 8: this out of rights package and that's been out of

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Speaker 8: market rights package and that's been a huge deal ESPN.

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Speaker 8: You know, Jimmy Pataro, the head of ESPN, he said

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Speaker 8: multiple times that he wants this focus on you know,

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Speaker 8: regional rights when it comes to MLB. So there's you know,

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Speaker 8: it's been reported that they're still going to pay the

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Speaker 8: same amount of money that they had with the original deal,

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Speaker 8: but it's a different kind of reach.

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Speaker 2: What was that original deal with ESPN five fifty?

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Speaker 8: Is that fifty and that's that's what it's going to

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Speaker 8: be with this one.

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Speaker 2: It's based on fifty million and then and so that

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Speaker 2: and but it's ESPN again, right, Yes, So they sold

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Speaker 2: it and buy it in the same I'm trying to.

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Speaker 8: They shook things up, and it's just the focus on

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Speaker 8: regional rights, got it?

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Speaker 4: So is it because they don't see ESPN doesn't see

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Speaker 4: the value of MLB as a premier property.

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Speaker 8: Yeah, I think they wouldn't frame it that way because

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Speaker 8: I asked them about it, and I interviewed Jimmy Padaro

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Speaker 8: a few weeks ago, and he just said, you know,

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Speaker 8: we want these regional rights. That's the way that we're

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Speaker 8: really trying to help fans. We think this is going

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Speaker 8: to be an asset for a new streaming service. But

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Speaker 8: you know, it's just I think with this it's they're

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Speaker 8: both kind of getting what they want year and then

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Speaker 8: you see you know, special events like the home run derby.

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Speaker 8: Netflix has been in talks to get that and that'll

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Speaker 8: help them with their strategy and expanding you know, live sports,

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Speaker 8: these one off events.

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Speaker 2: And so ESPN's it's going to air the the out

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Speaker 2: of market games. I think that's there.

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Speaker 6: That is it?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I got you, I got it.

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Speaker 4: So it's their their answer to regional the sport. The

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Speaker 4: problem with the regional sports networks, I mean, what's going

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Speaker 4: on with that is is this something still that they

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Speaker 4: see the value and then they need to figure out

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Speaker 4: that all these teams because there's five teams also that

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Speaker 4: are in market games also, right, yes, yeah, so what's

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Speaker 4: going on with the regional sports network problem?

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Speaker 8: So you know, regional sports, it's a really problematic area

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Speaker 8: as I'm sure you know, we've seen multiple bankruptcies. You know,

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Speaker 8: they've had to kind of make these deals to get

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Speaker 8: out of bankruptcy. But you know they still see value

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Speaker 8: in this, Like you know, you have these local fans.

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Speaker 8: There are people who tune in like this is what

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Speaker 8: they want to watch. So I think ESPN and MLB

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Speaker 8: like they figured that this was a good way to

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Speaker 8: kind of both get positives from it, like you're having

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Speaker 8: a home for you know, these regional games. And then

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Speaker 8: ESPN is like, okay, this is yet another asset that

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Speaker 8: we can add to the streaming platform.

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Speaker 2: So, Hannah, is ESPN winning the streaming wars? I mean,

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Speaker 2: look what they've just done here with the NFL, right,

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Speaker 2: I mean MLB now, I mean WWE. I mean talk

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Speaker 2: to us about you know, who is winning the you know,

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Speaker 2: the wars for streamingum streaming premium sporting events today.

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Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean this new offering from ESPN is you

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Speaker 8: know huge for them. This is a big deal. We

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Speaker 8: also saw the launch of Fox one, which is Fox's

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Speaker 8: streaming platform that's going to have Fox Entertainment, Fox News,

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Speaker 8: and Fox Sports offerings. So you know, you do see

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Speaker 8: a pretty full field obviously NBC Sports. They're continuing to

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Speaker 8: make a huge push with Peacock and the NBA is

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Speaker 8: going to be key for that in the fall. So

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Speaker 8: you know, I wouldn't say esp I think it's too.

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Speaker 2: Early to say sports Sports really is still at the

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Speaker 2: forefront of streaming, right, and it seems to me that

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Speaker 2: ESPN is still the alpha there for the most part.

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Speaker 2: I leave it's holding on. So it's just interesting to

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Speaker 2: see how this is all shaking out. I mean, you've

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Speaker 2: got players like Apple and Amazon knocking down their doors, right,

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Speaker 2: so it's it's still it's still interesting to see Disney there.

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Speaker 2: Michael Barr, what do you think.

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Speaker 7: Well, I think speaking of Netflix, did you talk about

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Speaker 7: that they're going to broadcast the twenty twenty six World

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Speaker 7: Baseball Classic in Japan? And g I just wonder, there's

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Speaker 7: some guy on the Los Angeles Dodgers here sho hey,

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Speaker 7: oh Tani, I bet that that's going to explode in Japan.

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Speaker 8: Oh, it's it's all about show hey, like they this

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Speaker 8: is a huge, huge event in Japan. It is a

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Speaker 8: big win for Netflix. There's a lot of excitement already

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Speaker 8: about this happening, and you know, Japan loves the World

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Speaker 8: Baseball Classic. They do very well in the World Baseball Classic,

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Speaker 8: so I think this is a great fit. And yeah,

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Speaker 8: it makes total sense. And yeah, I think it's the

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Speaker 8: first live event in Japan that Netflix is going to

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Speaker 8: be broadcasting, so very exciting.

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Speaker 4: Is there any like fear?

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Speaker 9: Though?

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Speaker 4: In these big tournaments some players opt out of playing

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Speaker 4: in them and show he has had his problem with

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Speaker 4: injury and things like that. So what if he doesn't play?

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Speaker 4: Did Netflix just spend a bunch of money that for

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Speaker 4: no reason?

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Speaker 8: Oh god, no, I think it would be a huge disappointment.

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Speaker 8: For sure. He's you know, the biggest name. He is

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Speaker 8: a hero there. I mean, we saw with the World

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Speaker 8: Series last year that you know, there were some games

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Speaker 8: that had higher viewership in Japan than in the US.

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Speaker 8: You know, it was crazy. So you know, Netflix is

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Speaker 8: really capitalizing on that with this deal.

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Speaker 2: Well to put some context around that, right, The World

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Speaker 2: Baseball Classic has consistently drawn massive national audiences, with some

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Speaker 2: games exceeding thirty eight million viewers. And listen to this.

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Speaker 2: The MLB Tokyo Series in twenty twenty five cent new

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Speaker 2: records with over twenty four million viewers per game, which

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Speaker 2: is just a massive number for Baseball, I mean, by

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Speaker 2: anybody's imagination, definitely.

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Speaker 7: Well, they're going to also sell and I'm just you

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Speaker 7: talk about this deal with ESPN and Baseball, didn't they

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Speaker 7: just sell a ten percent stake in the Walt Disney

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Speaker 7: Company Sports Network involved in this to help with trying

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Speaker 7: to bring this to a great audience from an old

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Speaker 7: man who was trying to like hang on for dear

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Speaker 7: life with rabbit ears on his television.

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Speaker 8: Yeah, no, And I mean that was a huge part

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Speaker 8: of the NFL deal, was that that stake. And you know,

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Speaker 8: this has been speculated about for a long time, so

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Speaker 8: for that to come through was pretty exciting. And yeah,

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Speaker 8: it just shows the closeness between you know, Disney, ESPN

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Speaker 8: and the league.

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Speaker 7: Is this going to be a big boon for the NFL?

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Speaker 8: I mean, they're always killing it, so I think it's

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Speaker 8: just gonna continue that.

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Speaker 2: I mean, that's exactly right to have a teat at

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Speaker 2: that table, right to just be a shareholder in the

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Speaker 2: NFL in and of itself. I mean what Disney should

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Speaker 2: really be doing is selling off little bits and pieces,

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Speaker 2: you know, getting a big fat fee for it like

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Speaker 2: an inf's some banker would and you know, commoditizing it

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Speaker 2: and you know all that good stuff.

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Speaker 7: Well that's your money, man, could get it. You got

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Speaker 7: you got the wall and I've seen you all this.

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Speaker 2: This is a somethingthetic, you know, total return swamps be beautiful.

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Speaker 2: You and me, Michael Barb once again on a beach somewhere.

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Speaker 2: You know what, man, moh and.

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Speaker 7: We both saying the same thing. Private equity. Here we go,

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Speaker 7: which brings me to the next question. Had a private

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Speaker 7: equity has changed the whole landscape of everything in sports ownership.

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Speaker 8: And you know you could see that sort of play

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Speaker 8: out too with CBS Sports. You know, we have the

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Speaker 8: Paramount merger with sky Dance Media and you know Redbird

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Speaker 8: has huge involvement in that. So it's everywhere, you know,

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Speaker 8: and we're going to see it, I think more and

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Speaker 8: more in media.

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Speaker 2: Well, we've also seen the Bills, the Niners, the Fins,

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Speaker 2: they've all sold equity stakes, right, and it's really I

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Speaker 2: mean if you look at some of the numbers and

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Speaker 2: what it means for the Dallas Cowboys, for example, who

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Speaker 2: like ear N s Porticle had them at ten billion.

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Speaker 2: I think we have them at fourteen and a half.

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Speaker 2: Now if you revise everything up that is.

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Speaker 4: I mean, it's interesting because the Cowboys will never or

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Speaker 4: seemingly they're not going to sell, but they will consistently

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Speaker 4: stay top no matter who else sells at their mistakes.

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Speaker 2: That's right. And you know, we don't even have to

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Speaker 2: talk about how owners in the NFL have the ability

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Speaker 2: to write off the IP for their brands against gains

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Speaker 2: from other businesses. I'm just saying that is something we've

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Speaker 2: written about in the past here at Bloomberg. It's a fact.

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Speaker 2: It was actually in the Big Beautiful Bill and then

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Speaker 2: it got pulled out of there that they can't advertise

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Speaker 2: that IP over anyway.

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Speaker 3: Whatever.

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Speaker 7: Aber Thanks to Hannah Miller for joining us. She covers

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Speaker 7: media and entertainment for Bloomberg News. Up next, we stick

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Speaker 7: with sports media and do a deeper dive on some

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Speaker 7: of the latest headlines with research from our friends at

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Speaker 7: Bloomberg Intelligence for Damian Sasaur and Vanessa Pernomo. I'm Michael Barr.

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Speaker 7: You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports Bloomberg Radio

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Speaker 7: around the world.

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Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.

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Speaker 7: This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explore

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Speaker 7: the big money issues in the world of sports. Michael Barr,

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Speaker 7: along with Damian Sasaur and Vanessa Perdomo, streamers are going

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Speaker 7: big on live sports, with YouTube tv continuing to grow

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Speaker 7: its portfolio of live sports programming. Bloomberg Intelligence senior media

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Speaker 7: analysts Geitha Reganafat has all the research to back this

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Speaker 7: and more, and she's here now to break it all down. Githa,

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Speaker 7: Welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports.

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Speaker 9: Thank you so much for having me.

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Speaker 7: YouTube TV rising strength in sports programming. What are they

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Speaker 7: doing right?

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Speaker 9: So?

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Speaker 5: You know, this is the whole rise of what we

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Speaker 5: call the virtual PATV operators, and YouTube TV absolutely leads

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Speaker 5: in that space. So they basically provide you everything that

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Speaker 5: a traditional PATV operator like a Comcast or Verizon would provide,

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Speaker 5: except that this is going to be over streaming, so

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Speaker 5: it's over the top.

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Speaker 9: And what people really.

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Speaker 5: Like about it is, you know, the ease of signing

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Speaker 5: on and signing off. Remember all the times that you

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Speaker 5: can never get through to your cable company or you

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Speaker 5: can never cancel service, Well, you don't really have that

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Speaker 5: problem here. You don't get locked in for years and years.

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Speaker 5: You can sign on, you can sign off whenever you want,

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Speaker 5: and the price up until this point, like now it's

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Speaker 5: getting a little bit pricey, but up until this point,

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Speaker 5: it actually was pretty economical and made a lot of sense.

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Speaker 5: And one of the reasons that people really like YouTube

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Speaker 5: tv is just because the user interface is top notch,

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Speaker 5: and especially if you're watching sports, it's absolutely great. So

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Speaker 5: that's kind of been one of the reasons why YouTube

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Speaker 5: tv has been such a popular service. And we actually

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Speaker 5: think it might be the third largest. They don't report

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Speaker 5: subscriber numbers very often, but we think they have close

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Speaker 5: to almost nine and a half to ten million subscribers,

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Speaker 5: which makes them possibly the third largest PATV operator in

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Speaker 5: the United States.

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Speaker 9: Wow. I love YouTube TV.

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Speaker 4: I personally have it, and I feel that it's great

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Speaker 4: for game Day, especially you know, NFL Sundays, for multiviewer,

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Speaker 4: you know, the multiview service, which I definitely want to

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Speaker 4: talk to you about later on when we talk about

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Speaker 4: know how all these different games around streaming and things

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Speaker 4: like that. But right now they're in this problem with

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Speaker 4: Fox and they might not be able to have games

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Speaker 4: this weekend.

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Speaker 9: Tell us about that.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, So, Vanessa, I mean, this is nothing new, So

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Speaker 5: ear in and ear out right before the start of

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Speaker 5: college football and right before the start of you know,

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Speaker 5: the all important NFL season. We typically have some high

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Speaker 5: profile carriage renewal that comes up. This year, it happens

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Speaker 5: to be YouTube TV and Fox, And basically what it

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Speaker 5: is is August twenty seventh, where actually is the carriage expiration.

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Speaker 9: So that's when their.

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Speaker 5: Deal typically it's a three year deal kind of comes

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Speaker 5: up for expiration. Both sides are playing hardball this time.

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Speaker 5: YouTube TV is claiming that Fox is charging a whole

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Speaker 5: lot more than it was before, and Fox, of course

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Speaker 5: is holding its ground and saying that it has must

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Speaker 5: have programming and therefore is entitled to that kind.

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Speaker 9: Of a price hike.

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Speaker 5: So, you know, you have both sides that you know,

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Speaker 5: obviously they both wield a lot of power.

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Speaker 9: Fox of course has the content.

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Speaker 5: YouTube TV has the scale, and so it's it's going

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Speaker 5: to be a game of.

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Speaker 7: Chicken in the talk more about content. Fox holds the

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Speaker 7: NFL card, which ethan that's a very important card.

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Speaker 4: Well.

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Speaker 5: Absolutely, Fox has great, great sports lineup, Michael. So whether

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Speaker 5: we're talking college football, we're talking NFL, we're talking the

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Speaker 5: MLB playoffs and the World Series, Fox has it all,

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Speaker 5: so they absolutely know that they have a lot to

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Speaker 5: offer when it comes to their broadcast network, when it

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Speaker 5: comes to Fox.

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Speaker 9: Sports, and then of course you have Fox.

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Speaker 5: News, which you know is by far the biggest cable network,

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Speaker 5: so it's you know, it's it's their whole live TV

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Speaker 5: lineup sports and news and they have the best of both.

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Speaker 4: Which yeah, to that point, though, Geith, it doesn't doesn't

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Speaker 4: that give them Fox the upper hand in terms of negotiating.

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Speaker 4: I mean, if they have these dates blocked out and

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Speaker 4: you weren't able to watch, I'm I'm a Buckeye fan, right,

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Speaker 4: so if I can't watch to the howse say, football games,

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Speaker 4: so you know, I'll be really upset about it. So

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Speaker 4: if you have people like that who aren't able to

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Speaker 4: watch their games, You're not able to watch in the NFL,

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Speaker 4: Now we're not able to watch football on YouTube TV.

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Speaker 4: Don't you think they'll see YouTube TV would then see

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Speaker 4: like massive subscriber drops. So they need to get that

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Speaker 4: deal done for them really.

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Speaker 9: Yeah, and you're right, Vanessa.

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Speaker 5: So you know, in the past, we obviously used to

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Speaker 5: see the content owners. So a company like Fox or

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Speaker 5: a Disney or a paramount kind of wheeled all of.

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Speaker 9: The power in this kind of an equation.

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Speaker 5: What has happened though, is because we are having so

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Speaker 5: much of cord cutting. You know, losing subscribers is not

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Speaker 5: good for anybody. Of course, it's not good for the

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Speaker 5: PATV operator. But then remember YouTube TV here is really

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Speaker 5: you know, they're not a Comcast, they're not a charter,

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Speaker 5: They're owned by Google, one of the largest companies in

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Speaker 5: the world with very very deep pockets. And so yes,

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Speaker 5: YouTube TV, I mean, it is a big business. But

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Speaker 5: at the end of the day, even if they lose

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Speaker 5: a few subscribers this way or that way, it doesn't

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Speaker 5: necessarily break the business.

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Speaker 9: So that's where.

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Speaker 5: YouTube TV is a little bit different from let's say,

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Speaker 5: a dish or a direct TV. I still think that

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Speaker 5: Fox does hold a fairly good amount of power, as

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Speaker 5: most content owners do, but I also think at the

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Speaker 5: same time that the balance of power that whole equation

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Speaker 5: is changing a little bit.

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Speaker 9: And now, especially if you're a.

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Speaker 5: Distributor like YouTube TV that has so much of scale,

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Speaker 5: that has millions of subscribers, nearly ten million subscribers, they

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Speaker 5: have a pretty loud voice as well. So that's why

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Speaker 5: these kind of skirmishes become really interesting because we then

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Speaker 5: get to know who really holds the trump card, if

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Speaker 5: you will.

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Speaker 7: Well, that goes to the subscribers. As you mentioned earlier,

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Speaker 7: right now they have about nine point four million YouTube

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Speaker 7: TV and they're about to increase, which has got to

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Speaker 7: throw fear now obviously in the cable providers. What can

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Speaker 7: they do to save themselves?

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Speaker 9: Yeah, this is a really great question.

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Speaker 5: I mean, what we're seeing, Michael, is more and more

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Speaker 5: content is moving away from the linear TV bundle to

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Speaker 5: the streaming outlets, and that's really bad news for you know,

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Speaker 5: a cable provider, it's bad news even actually for a

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Speaker 5: YouTube TV any provider who is basically redistributing linear TV content.

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Speaker 5: This comes at a really interesting time. And I say

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Speaker 5: that because just a few days ago, or maybe a

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Speaker 5: couple of weeks ago, we had both ESPN and Fox

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Speaker 5: debut their streaming services. And you know, this is huge

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Speaker 5: for the sports ecosystem because at the end of last year,

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Speaker 5: if you kind of just look at the sports ecosystem,

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Speaker 5: we had only about forty percent of US sports rights

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Speaker 5: that were available to stream, so you basically needed a

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Speaker 5: cable TV subscription to watch the remaining sixty percent but

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Speaker 5: with the introduction of both ESPN and Fox One, which

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Speaker 5: is Fox's streaming service, one hundred percent of US sports

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Speaker 5: are now available.

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Speaker 9: To be streamed.

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Speaker 5: And so this is kind of a really precarious time,

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Speaker 5: I would say for both the content owners as well

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Speaker 5: as the PATV distributors, because anybody who now wants a

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Speaker 5: streaming subscription can basically get one. They're no longer tied

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Speaker 5: to the traditional TV bundle. So again, that's why I

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Speaker 5: say this is a this is a really a wonderful

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Speaker 5: kind fight just because of the time at which it comes.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm so glad you brought up that point because

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Speaker 4: I saw that in your report from the other day

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Speaker 4: that one hundred percent of sports viewership is available on streaming,

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Speaker 4: which which is absolutely insane, but it obviously does make

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Speaker 4: sense as we've seen all these different you know, Netflix

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Speaker 4: and Prime and Peacock and whoever all get into sports

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Speaker 4: in a different way. But YouTube TV does it basically

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Speaker 4: just make them obsolete? Do they even need to exist anymore?

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Speaker 4: Or is the next actual thing someone like a YouTube

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Speaker 4: TV we should really do is try and become the

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Speaker 4: platform in which you can flip through all these different

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Speaker 4: streaming platforms like someone needs to create that.

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Speaker 6: It feels like, oh.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, And you bring up an excellent point of inness.

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Speaker 5: I think they are eventually kind of moving to that model.

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Speaker 5: I don't know whether it's going to be a YouTube TV,

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Speaker 5: or whether it's going to be an Amazon, or whether

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Speaker 5: it even is going to be a Netflix. I mean,

441
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Speaker 5: I think ESPN is trying to do that now for sports.

442
00:21:25,040 --> 00:21:26,520
Speaker 9: They eventually want to do that.

443
00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:29,440
Speaker 5: That's why they did the deal with NFL, That's why

444
00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:32,000
Speaker 5: they went after some MLB rights. They're trying to get

445
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:34,800
Speaker 5: as much content as they can on their platform. But

446
00:21:34,840 --> 00:21:36,720
Speaker 5: it's going to be interesting to see how all of

447
00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:39,040
Speaker 5: that plays out. But you bring up an important point,

448
00:21:39,119 --> 00:21:43,119
Speaker 5: which is is YouTube TV or our PATV operators like

449
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:45,920
Speaker 5: YouTube TV, like Comcast, going to become obsolete?

450
00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:46,760
Speaker 9: I don't think so.

451
00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:50,320
Speaker 5: I think there is still that traditional viewer who kind

452
00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:53,560
Speaker 5: of likes everything in one place, you know, you don't

453
00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:55,720
Speaker 5: want to have to sign up for, you know, seven

454
00:21:55,920 --> 00:21:59,080
Speaker 5: or eight or ten different services, and so I think

455
00:21:59,119 --> 00:22:01,240
Speaker 5: there is always going to be a place for the

456
00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:04,919
Speaker 5: traditional cable bundle. So I don't necessarily think they're going

457
00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:06,920
Speaker 5: to become obsolete. But we are definitely in a very

458
00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:09,439
Speaker 5: very fragmented marketplace.

459
00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:12,040
Speaker 7: That is for sure, and Hulu plus Live is saying, hey,

460
00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:15,280
Speaker 7: don't forget about us, because they've got a merger coming up.

461
00:22:15,359 --> 00:22:18,480
Speaker 7: Right now. They are behind YouTube tv. They only have

462
00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:22,800
Speaker 7: four point three million users, but this merger Keitha is

463
00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:25,280
Speaker 7: going to put them there a very close second.

464
00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:26,280
Speaker 9: Yeah, it is.

465
00:22:26,359 --> 00:22:29,600
Speaker 5: And what's really interesting about the merger with Hulu and

466
00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:33,520
Speaker 5: Fubo is again that Fubo Michael is a very very

467
00:22:33,640 --> 00:22:35,520
Speaker 5: sports oriented service.

468
00:22:36,320 --> 00:22:37,320
Speaker 9: They have everything.

469
00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:40,280
Speaker 5: You know, they initially started trying to cater to the

470
00:22:40,320 --> 00:22:44,480
Speaker 5: football fan and now they've kind of, you know, they've

471
00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:47,320
Speaker 5: they've expanded to all of the different sports. So again,

472
00:22:47,359 --> 00:22:49,600
Speaker 5: it's going to be really interesting because again, YouTube TV,

473
00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:53,720
Speaker 5: we know, tends to be fairly sports centric. Fubo and

474
00:22:53,800 --> 00:22:55,840
Speaker 5: Hulu is also going to be sports centric. So I

475
00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:57,600
Speaker 5: think we're going to see more and more people kind

476
00:22:57,600 --> 00:23:01,000
Speaker 5: of gravitate to those services. And that's that's going to

477
00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:04,200
Speaker 5: be actually good I think overall for the consumer because

478
00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:07,760
Speaker 5: it just makes the process of signing on, signing off so.

479
00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:09,200
Speaker 9: Much more smooth and seamless.

480
00:23:09,359 --> 00:23:13,560
Speaker 4: Most people who have any sort of live TV are

481
00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:16,040
Speaker 4: using it for sports. I mean, that's really what's keeping

482
00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:18,440
Speaker 4: live TV afloat in general.

483
00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:20,080
Speaker 9: You're absolutely right.

484
00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:23,240
Speaker 5: You know, people they just they do want to have

485
00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:25,760
Speaker 5: all of their sports in one place, and the only

486
00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:28,320
Speaker 5: way you can do that right now is through live TV.

487
00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:28,720
Speaker 9: You can.

488
00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:32,280
Speaker 5: You know, you have all these cable TV operators, you

489
00:23:32,359 --> 00:23:36,680
Speaker 5: have most PATV distributors basically selling you skinny packages and

490
00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:40,920
Speaker 5: packages just tailored for the sports enthusiast.

491
00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:44,320
Speaker 9: So yeah, I mean you do have to still very

492
00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:45,560
Speaker 9: much rely on live TV.

493
00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:48,680
Speaker 5: That may change three, four, five years down the road,

494
00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:52,040
Speaker 5: but right now it's still very much is tied to

495
00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:53,320
Speaker 5: the linear TV bundle.

496
00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:55,359
Speaker 2: Keith, I'd love to switch gears here and ask you

497
00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:57,320
Speaker 2: about the new Major League Baseball deal and what that

498
00:23:57,359 --> 00:23:59,480
Speaker 2: means for team valuations. And the reason I ask is

499
00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:01,639
Speaker 2: this where we freshing our numbers here with all the

500
00:24:01,680 --> 00:24:04,760
Speaker 2: private equity dealings in the NFL, the recent sales in

501
00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:07,440
Speaker 2: the NBA of the Celtics and the Lakers, and we're

502
00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:10,639
Speaker 2: trying to wrap our brains around what this new MLB

503
00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:13,320
Speaker 2: deal will mean for some of these baseball teams that

504
00:24:13,359 --> 00:24:16,400
Speaker 2: you know, we're so heavily reliant on local programming. Any

505
00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:17,240
Speaker 2: thoughts to share there?

506
00:24:17,359 --> 00:24:19,760
Speaker 5: I think this deal Davian is really good for Major

507
00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:23,080
Speaker 5: League Baseball. Remember just you know, a few months ago,

508
00:24:23,119 --> 00:24:26,760
Speaker 5: they were really in a tight spot. They had lost

509
00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:29,359
Speaker 5: a lot of their deals on the local side because

510
00:24:29,359 --> 00:24:33,360
Speaker 5: of the bankruptcy of you know, Diamond Sports, and then suddenly,

511
00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:37,480
Speaker 5: you know, on the national side, they lost the ESPN contract.

512
00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:40,840
Speaker 5: ESPN basically opted out of its five hundred and fifty

513
00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:44,080
Speaker 5: million dollar deal, which kind of really left them in

514
00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:46,600
Speaker 5: a tough spot. And so what they did is they

515
00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:49,000
Speaker 5: went back to the drawing board, you know, rejiggered a

516
00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:52,760
Speaker 5: couple of the packages, and now they're basically making more

517
00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:55,679
Speaker 5: than what they were before. They have another deal with

518
00:24:55,960 --> 00:24:58,600
Speaker 5: ESPN in place, which focuses a little bit more on streaming,

519
00:24:58,640 --> 00:25:00,800
Speaker 5: and then they have new partners on so they now

520
00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:04,040
Speaker 5: have NBC and Netflix and that basically gives them over

521
00:25:04,119 --> 00:25:07,719
Speaker 5: two billion dollars in animal rights fees. And you know,

522
00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:10,440
Speaker 5: from our viewpoint, that's a great deal for the MLB,

523
00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:13,920
Speaker 5: and we think that finally trickles over or trickles down

524
00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:16,320
Speaker 5: rather to team valuations as well. So I think it's

525
00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:19,520
Speaker 5: good news actually all around, it's a win win for everyone.

526
00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:23,000
Speaker 7: Here our thanks to Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Media analyst Getha

527
00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:26,439
Speaker 7: Raganathan for joining us up. Next, we turn to the

528
00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:30,320
Speaker 7: world of fantasy sports with roto Wire founder and president

529
00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:34,520
Speaker 7: Peter Shanky for Damian sas Hour and Vanessa Perdomo. I'm

530
00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:38,159
Speaker 7: Michael Barr. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports

531
00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:40,359
Speaker 7: from Bloomberg Radio around the world.

532
00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:48,520
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.

533
00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:52,399
Speaker 7: Thanks for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports.

534
00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:54,920
Speaker 7: We explored the big funny issues in the world of sports.

535
00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:58,920
Speaker 7: Michael Barr along with Damian SaaS Hour and Vanessa Perdomo

536
00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:04,200
Speaker 7: just about fantasy football time. Fantasy sports is a multi

537
00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:08,399
Speaker 7: billion dollar industry and it continues to grow. Here to

538
00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:10,720
Speaker 7: take us through the latest and explore some of the

539
00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:14,560
Speaker 7: newest trends in the fantasy sports world is Peter Shanky.

540
00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:19,560
Speaker 7: He's founder and president of Rota Wire, a leading content

541
00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:25,160
Speaker 7: and tech provider fantasy sports consumers and media companies. Peter,

542
00:26:25,400 --> 00:26:27,840
Speaker 7: Welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports.

543
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:28,880
Speaker 6: Hey, thanks for having me.

544
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:33,040
Speaker 7: Okay, yes, I know we are the business of sports,

545
00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:36,080
Speaker 7: but there's no way in the world that I have

546
00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:38,720
Speaker 7: the founder and president of Rota Wire that I am

547
00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:42,240
Speaker 7: not going to ask this question, who would you take

548
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:46,320
Speaker 7: in your first pick? I am my team is the

549
00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:50,760
Speaker 7: news bros. No man, come on, you want to know

550
00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:54,000
Speaker 7: Jamar Chase or Bijon Robinson.

551
00:26:55,080 --> 00:26:57,439
Speaker 3: Well, Jamar Chase is the consensus. But the one thing

552
00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:00,600
Speaker 3: I would always say is it really matters about your rules.

553
00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:01,840
Speaker 6: The number one thing I.

554
00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:04,320
Speaker 3: Could tell any fantasy player, whether they're a new person

555
00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:06,760
Speaker 3: or advanced, is really study up on the rules in

556
00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:10,359
Speaker 3: the format you're playing a game you're not trying to actually,

557
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:12,399
Speaker 3: you know, play the real NFL. You know, so if

558
00:27:12,400 --> 00:27:15,920
Speaker 3: you start five wide receivers or have extra bonus points

559
00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:18,000
Speaker 3: for this and that, it can matter. But generally speaking,

560
00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:21,280
Speaker 3: the most common league chases the best player to take

561
00:27:21,320 --> 00:27:25,480
Speaker 3: this year at number one. He's just consistent, and you know,

562
00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:28,639
Speaker 3: the Bengals offense is highly charged. They also have a

563
00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:30,560
Speaker 3: bad defense. This means it's gonna be a lot of shootout.

564
00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:32,119
Speaker 3: So just you know, he's done it a lot, and

565
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:34,320
Speaker 3: all the factors point positive for him, and he's the

566
00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:37,400
Speaker 3: safe and most reliable option, and you know, so take him.

567
00:27:37,560 --> 00:27:38,200
Speaker 6: It's an ombrainger.

568
00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:43,600
Speaker 4: Yeah, Damian Vanessa, I kind of panicked because I did

569
00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:45,719
Speaker 4: get the first pick of my draft. This year, and

570
00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:49,159
Speaker 4: I like stress panic Saquon Barkley, and I probably, I

571
00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:51,000
Speaker 4: know I should have picked a wide receiver. I mean,

572
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:52,879
Speaker 4: what are your thoughts there up here on like in

573
00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:54,280
Speaker 4: running back versus wide receiver.

574
00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:57,000
Speaker 3: First, well, that's not a terrible pick. Again, a lot

575
00:27:57,040 --> 00:27:59,359
Speaker 3: of it depends on the rules. But the thing about

576
00:27:59,359 --> 00:28:02,479
Speaker 3: the running backs is they have the most upside. They

577
00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:04,359
Speaker 3: catch the ball, they run the ball, they get the

578
00:28:04,359 --> 00:28:06,399
Speaker 3: ball at the end zone. If they're three down backs

579
00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:09,639
Speaker 3: like Barkley. So taking the running back early, you know, statistically,

580
00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:11,360
Speaker 3: if it works out, is the best choice you can make.

581
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:12,560
Speaker 6: The problem is they get hurt.

582
00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:16,320
Speaker 3: And last year we saw an incredibly rare event where

583
00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:18,440
Speaker 3: there was not that many injuries among like the star

584
00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:20,120
Speaker 3: running backs. And so I think a lot of people

585
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:22,000
Speaker 3: are drafting this year think that's going to happen again.

586
00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:24,399
Speaker 3: And there's some reasons to think that that might be

587
00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:26,479
Speaker 3: a trend that's going to happen a little bit because

588
00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:29,960
Speaker 3: NFL defenses are they're you know, they're they're not hitting

589
00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:32,280
Speaker 3: as hard, they're they're defending the pass lot more. So

590
00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:34,560
Speaker 3: maybe running backs are going to get injured at a

591
00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:37,320
Speaker 3: lower rate, you know, continued going forward, But Historically that

592
00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:39,160
Speaker 3: has not been the case. So you know, pick like

593
00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:40,800
Speaker 3: that is usually a big boom or bust, and that

594
00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:41,400
Speaker 3: might be the case.

595
00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:43,720
Speaker 6: This year. Barkley had a tremendous workload.

596
00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:45,360
Speaker 3: If you look at all the touches and carries he

597
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:47,760
Speaker 3: goat both in the regular season and the postseason, it's

598
00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:50,120
Speaker 3: one of the highest numbers in NFL history. And generally

599
00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:51,840
Speaker 3: that's not a good sign for the next year because

600
00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:53,880
Speaker 3: they're you know, they're pretty worn out. So we'll see

601
00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:57,000
Speaker 3: what happens with him. He's obviously an amazing athlete that

602
00:28:57,040 --> 00:28:58,520
Speaker 3: could sort of break all those molds.

603
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:01,719
Speaker 2: In your expert opinion, having done this as long as

604
00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:05,000
Speaker 2: you have, if you were not a member of Road

605
00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:08,280
Speaker 2: to Wire, who would you be following? Who do you

606
00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:13,120
Speaker 2: believe is another provider of fantasy football information that you respect?

607
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:13,920
Speaker 5: Well?

608
00:29:13,920 --> 00:29:15,480
Speaker 3: If I put my company hat on, it's hard for

609
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:18,360
Speaker 3: me to say go anywhere else, right, but my industry

610
00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:19,920
Speaker 3: had on. I mean, there's a lot of good stuff

611
00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:23,120
Speaker 3: out there. I mean, most people who play fantasy sports

612
00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:26,240
Speaker 3: and buy a content product of any kind usually buy

613
00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:29,960
Speaker 3: on average, I think it's like two point two products.

614
00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:32,560
Speaker 3: So people like multiple points of view, and so that's

615
00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:34,800
Speaker 3: what we always say for Rodo war So, Matthew Berry,

616
00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:37,640
Speaker 3: he's you know at NBC, good friend of mine runs

617
00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:40,800
Speaker 3: runs a competitive website. But it's very good. You know,

618
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:43,440
Speaker 3: but you want, you know, you want multiple opinions. You know,

619
00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:44,600
Speaker 3: you don't want to you don't want to just see

620
00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:46,240
Speaker 3: what he's saying. You know, you want to look around

621
00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:49,320
Speaker 3: and you know a lot of sites have pluses and minuses.

622
00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:52,880
Speaker 3: Our plus is that we have the real time information

623
00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:57,160
Speaker 3: that's updated twenty four to seven. It's what ESPN, Yahoo, DraftKings,

624
00:29:57,640 --> 00:29:58,320
Speaker 3: NFL dot com.

625
00:29:58,400 --> 00:29:59,280
Speaker 6: They all rely on us.

626
00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:02,600
Speaker 3: So when you go our website, in our app, this

627
00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:04,400
Speaker 3: new app that we just launched a football draftro to

628
00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:06,920
Speaker 3: our football Draft Cad app, you know the information is

629
00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:09,840
Speaker 3: going to be super fast. Everything's been updated. You know

630
00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:11,920
Speaker 3: you're never gonna take a guy that's injured. You know,

631
00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:14,600
Speaker 3: all the rankings are in real time. So and that's

632
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:16,600
Speaker 3: big because when you're on the clock in the draft

633
00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:18,720
Speaker 3: and you've got thirty seconds, you know you can't.

634
00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:20,440
Speaker 6: Be like this one up to date. Are you sure

635
00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:21,840
Speaker 6: this guy is the number three receiver?

636
00:30:23,560 --> 00:30:25,520
Speaker 2: I mean, for first, it was the ability to synk

637
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:28,560
Speaker 2: your league into the website, right that came first, and

638
00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:30,200
Speaker 2: then it was the ability for that, you know, your

639
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:33,400
Speaker 2: website to kind of you know, alongside your draft you know,

640
00:30:33,560 --> 00:30:35,600
Speaker 2: kind of have your little window up where it's kind

641
00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:37,719
Speaker 2: of feeding you, you know, here's the best pick, kind

642
00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:39,640
Speaker 2: of like we do when you have your draft simulator, right,

643
00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:41,400
Speaker 2: which is the other big thing. So you know, talk

644
00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:43,840
Speaker 2: to us about some of those innovations. What comes next

645
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:46,800
Speaker 2: in the world of fantasy news, fantasy data, Like, what

646
00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:48,760
Speaker 2: are you guys working on? What's the new app look like?

647
00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:49,640
Speaker 2: What's special about it?

648
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:50,040
Speaker 7: Oh?

649
00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:51,520
Speaker 6: So the real new app.

650
00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:53,640
Speaker 3: Everything's kind of moving too real time and you know,

651
00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:56,680
Speaker 3: effortly just getting the data set. Have to spend all

652
00:30:56,680 --> 00:30:58,760
Speaker 3: your time tracking your draft, which is being able to

653
00:30:58,760 --> 00:30:59,400
Speaker 3: analyze it more.

654
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:00,600
Speaker 6: And that's what our app does.

655
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:00,960
Speaker 9: It.

656
00:31:00,960 --> 00:31:02,920
Speaker 3: It has live saying so if you're drafted in Yahoo

657
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:04,760
Speaker 3: and some of the leagues, you know, it just clears

658
00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:06,920
Speaker 3: all the picks for you, has a recommendation for you

659
00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:09,280
Speaker 3: based on our algorithm, and then you're also able to

660
00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:11,280
Speaker 3: modify your draft strategy.

661
00:31:11,520 --> 00:31:12,720
Speaker 6: That's more than just a cheat sheet.

662
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:14,520
Speaker 3: Here's a couple of sleepers I like, But you know,

663
00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:17,120
Speaker 3: what things do you want to focus on? Is it

664
00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:19,080
Speaker 3: you know, how consistent they are. Do you want to

665
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:22,240
Speaker 3: avoid health risks? Do you want to take high upside

666
00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:24,320
Speaker 3: players in the later round? You can kind of build

667
00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:26,920
Speaker 3: this draft strategy and then based on that, we build

668
00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:29,320
Speaker 3: a cheat sheet for you, and then it all updates

669
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:32,240
Speaker 3: in real time in our app and on our website,

670
00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:35,120
Speaker 3: so that when you're doing a draft, and say, for example, Yahoo,

671
00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:36,920
Speaker 3: you know the first twenty picks are up and you're

672
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:40,040
Speaker 3: on the clock, you know you have boom our recommendation,

673
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:42,800
Speaker 3: the updated list of everyone that's there, and you know

674
00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:44,880
Speaker 3: you can spend your time trying to figure out the

675
00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:47,600
Speaker 3: best pick coming up, as opposed to, you know, still

676
00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:49,480
Speaker 3: trying to catch up on crossing everybody off.

677
00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:53,920
Speaker 7: Emerging fantasy football trends for this year, where do you

678
00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:55,320
Speaker 7: see it going? In general?

679
00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:57,400
Speaker 6: Well, fantasy is doing really well.

680
00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:00,680
Speaker 3: I think before the overturn of PASPA for that enabled

681
00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:03,040
Speaker 3: states to have sports betting, and now there's thirty five

682
00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:06,160
Speaker 3: plus state states that have sports betting in some format,

683
00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:09,479
Speaker 3: there was this notion that well, that's it for fantasy sports.

684
00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:11,960
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, people only playing fantasy sports because

685
00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:14,520
Speaker 3: they couldn't do sports betting. But that hasn't been the case.

686
00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:18,080
Speaker 3: I mean, it's its own distinct product and it's different

687
00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:22,200
Speaker 3: than gambling. I've always maintained that and that's been true.

688
00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:25,520
Speaker 3: I mean, the bigger companies ESPN, Yahoo, they have the

689
00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:28,360
Speaker 3: big free platforms. They're sort of the driver of growth

690
00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:31,160
Speaker 3: in the industry. They're growing, you know, they're growing at

691
00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:33,200
Speaker 3: a good clip. I think you know ESPN and think

692
00:32:33,240 --> 00:32:36,640
Speaker 3: last year record growth, and so you've seen companies like

693
00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:40,240
Speaker 3: FanDuel and Drafting still have you know, good prize pools

694
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:42,720
Speaker 3: for their DFS products, a lot of growth, and you

695
00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:44,720
Speaker 3: know here ro to Wire same thing, you know the

696
00:32:44,760 --> 00:32:46,680
Speaker 3: last you know, since then, we've we've still continued to

697
00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:49,600
Speaker 3: do great and obviously that's why we're investing order the products.

698
00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:52,640
Speaker 3: So the fantasy ecosystem is still you know, going very strong.

699
00:32:53,440 --> 00:32:56,560
Speaker 3: You know, people just start super enthusiastic about fantasy sports,

700
00:32:56,680 --> 00:32:59,920
Speaker 3: especially fantasy football, and it's fantasy football time, but you know,

701
00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:02,120
Speaker 3: all other kinds of sports too. I mean, we do

702
00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:04,920
Speaker 3: at rod to Wire about twenty five sports, depending how

703
00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:07,160
Speaker 3: you define it. You know, college football is a great

704
00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 3: one that I like to play. We have a lot

705
00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:11,400
Speaker 3: of English Fremer League soccer. So this time of year,

706
00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:14,080
Speaker 3: all that stuff is doing great. And pretty soon we'll

707
00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:15,400
Speaker 3: have hockey and basketball as well.

708
00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:18,720
Speaker 4: One of the things you know that is I'm curious

709
00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:21,800
Speaker 4: to hear from your take, is what you guys do

710
00:33:21,920 --> 00:33:24,680
Speaker 4: to bring in new fans who are kind of not

711
00:33:24,840 --> 00:33:26,360
Speaker 4: used to playing, Like I have a lot of friends

712
00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:29,320
Speaker 4: who play that really don't know anything about football. I'm

713
00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:31,440
Speaker 4: pretty new to it, like three or four years ago

714
00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:35,000
Speaker 4: I first started playing, and I was trying to, you know,

715
00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:38,000
Speaker 4: listen to as much as I could check out different platforms,

716
00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:41,040
Speaker 4: but a lot of it's like fully cooked information. You

717
00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:44,120
Speaker 4: have to be a very you know, a savant already

718
00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:46,320
Speaker 4: to kind of understand what people are already talking about

719
00:33:46,360 --> 00:33:48,440
Speaker 4: on these platforms. So what do you do for people

720
00:33:48,440 --> 00:33:49,440
Speaker 4: who are new to the space.

721
00:33:50,040 --> 00:33:51,360
Speaker 3: I think one of the things we've really tried to

722
00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:53,800
Speaker 3: do with our new app is to really make make

723
00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:56,320
Speaker 3: it so the casual user isn't intimidated. Right, So if

724
00:33:56,320 --> 00:33:57,600
Speaker 3: you go in there and you low it in all

725
00:33:57,720 --> 00:34:00,840
Speaker 3: the presettings, it doesn't take that much time because you

726
00:34:00,840 --> 00:34:03,080
Speaker 3: can you kind of suck in everything from whatever site

727
00:34:03,080 --> 00:34:05,080
Speaker 3: you're on. If you're on ESPN or Yahoo or whatever,

728
00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:08,000
Speaker 3: you can import that league and then go through all

729
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:09,840
Speaker 3: Like I talked about, all these recommendations and then it

730
00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:11,680
Speaker 3: kind of serves up advice to you.

731
00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:13,319
Speaker 6: It's really easy for you to figure out.

732
00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:15,360
Speaker 3: And I think that's been a way to sort of

733
00:34:15,440 --> 00:34:18,000
Speaker 3: as opposed to a way to help those have you know,

734
00:34:18,239 --> 00:34:20,640
Speaker 3: a more a newer user, newer player, and help them

735
00:34:20,640 --> 00:34:23,200
Speaker 3: on the path getting better, as opposed to having you know,

736
00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:25,600
Speaker 3: sort of just something really complicated that an advanced.

737
00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:27,520
Speaker 6: User could use. And we have that too, but this

738
00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:28,560
Speaker 6: is really helping us there.

739
00:34:28,640 --> 00:34:30,160
Speaker 3: And then we have a lot of series of articles

740
00:34:30,160 --> 00:34:32,759
Speaker 3: about how to play and how to get involved. You know,

741
00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:35,080
Speaker 3: those things are good, but yeah, I think you know,

742
00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:37,919
Speaker 3: it is kind of intimidating at first. But it's also

743
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:40,160
Speaker 3: the great thing about fantasy sports and fantasy football in

744
00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:42,040
Speaker 3: general is that it doesn't take long to get to

745
00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:43,319
Speaker 3: be an expert. I mean, you don't have to get

746
00:34:43,320 --> 00:34:45,120
Speaker 3: a PhD and go through you know, three or four

747
00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:47,319
Speaker 3: years of training or something like that. You know, once

748
00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:50,400
Speaker 3: you start doing some drafts, especially mock drafts, like we

749
00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:51,760
Speaker 3: have the ability to do a lot of mock crafts

750
00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:53,279
Speaker 3: on our app and our new product, and it's much

751
00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:54,839
Speaker 3: improved and it really helps out a lot.

752
00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:56,560
Speaker 6: You can just pick it up pretty quick.

753
00:34:56,600 --> 00:34:59,799
Speaker 3: I mean people go from being total novices to somebody

754
00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:02,680
Speaker 3: that considered to be a fantasy football expert in like

755
00:35:02,719 --> 00:35:05,160
Speaker 3: a season or two. You know, so luckily it's pretty

756
00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:05,799
Speaker 3: easy to pick up.

757
00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:08,200
Speaker 2: All right, Peter, it's go time talk to me about

758
00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:11,440
Speaker 2: the zero quarterback strategy here. I mean, c J. Stroud

759
00:35:11,560 --> 00:35:14,080
Speaker 2: isn't getting drafted in any league. You gotta be kidding me.

760
00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:16,839
Speaker 2: And then these tight ends. Look, I'm all for Brock

761
00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:19,600
Speaker 2: Bowers and you know, Trey McBride, but I mean, in

762
00:35:19,640 --> 00:35:22,759
Speaker 2: recent years you've seen Sam Laporta. These guys have disappointed man,

763
00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:25,399
Speaker 2: George Kittleedy get hurt. You know, like why, I mean,

764
00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:27,440
Speaker 2: talk to us. Where should tight ends go? You know,

765
00:35:27,440 --> 00:35:30,239
Speaker 2: where should you be looking at quarterbacks? I mean, what

766
00:35:30,239 --> 00:35:30,879
Speaker 2: do you like here?

767
00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:33,440
Speaker 3: Well, it's here for like, generally speaking, I'm a weight

768
00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:36,000
Speaker 3: on the quarterback kind of guy. There's a lot of quarterbacks.

769
00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:37,880
Speaker 3: You can always usually pick up one up off the

770
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:39,879
Speaker 3: waiver wire who's gonna have some productions, so you don't

771
00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:42,240
Speaker 3: have to be super secure there. Whereas you know, running

772
00:35:42,239 --> 00:35:44,319
Speaker 3: backs are usually pretty rare. You want to have all

773
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:46,960
Speaker 3: those on your bench. And this year for quarterback it's

774
00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:48,759
Speaker 3: really flat. I mean there's just not a whole lot

775
00:35:48,760 --> 00:35:54,160
Speaker 3: of difference between you know, the fifth quarterback or sixth quarterback.

776
00:35:53,719 --> 00:35:56,239
Speaker 6: And like the fifteenth one. I'm just waiting a whole lot.

777
00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:57,719
Speaker 3: You know, you want to get you know, some of

778
00:35:57,719 --> 00:36:01,160
Speaker 3: the top guys, you know her, you know, you know

779
00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:03,759
Speaker 3: the guys who run you know, the running quarterbacks. You know,

780
00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:06,040
Speaker 3: there's really a big a big four you know, cut

781
00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:08,440
Speaker 3: quarterback quarterbacks there. But then after that it's just a

782
00:36:08,440 --> 00:36:10,120
Speaker 3: lot of the same. So I'm waiting on quarterback a

783
00:36:10,120 --> 00:36:12,759
Speaker 3: lot tight end. But you know, similar dynamic, there's a

784
00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:13,520
Speaker 3: couple at the.

785
00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:14,839
Speaker 6: Top that are obviously really really good.

786
00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:16,600
Speaker 3: There's two, you know two in particular, the brock Boers

787
00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:19,920
Speaker 3: and Trade McBride, and then after that, you know, it

788
00:36:20,040 --> 00:36:21,920
Speaker 3: falls off pretty rapidly. And the problem with tight end

789
00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:23,920
Speaker 3: is just like I talked about running back, they get injured,

790
00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:26,200
Speaker 3: you know, you know, they're out there and they're block

791
00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:28,440
Speaker 3: and they're taking hits. They get injured at higher rates

792
00:36:28,440 --> 00:36:30,719
Speaker 3: than wide receiver and stuff like that. But yeah, this

793
00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:34,080
Speaker 3: year depending on and that's tight end especially is one

794
00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:35,799
Speaker 3: you really need to read your rules and figure out

795
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:38,640
Speaker 3: your format. If you have a format that rewards extra

796
00:36:38,719 --> 00:36:42,200
Speaker 3: points for tight end receptions, which is something the leagues

797
00:36:42,280 --> 00:36:44,239
Speaker 3: do try to make it so that those players are

798
00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:47,160
Speaker 3: more pertinent and then therefore your uh, there's more players

799
00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:49,360
Speaker 3: to pick up during the season that can make a

800
00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:52,520
Speaker 3: big difference. Or how many players you start, so somebod

801
00:36:52,520 --> 00:36:54,120
Speaker 3: these don't even start tight ends. It's just you just

802
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:56,879
Speaker 3: have receivers, so that makes a big difference. But yeah,

803
00:36:56,920 --> 00:36:58,359
Speaker 3: so those top two tight ends you could take it early.

804
00:36:58,440 --> 00:36:59,920
Speaker 3: But generally this year, I think it's a great year.

805
00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:02,680
Speaker 2: Just wait, a quarterback, and who's your favorite sleeper running back?

806
00:37:02,719 --> 00:37:05,640
Speaker 2: And don't say I'm Maria and Hampton the stor well,

807
00:37:05,760 --> 00:37:06,799
Speaker 2: I mean he would be the kind of the one.

808
00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:08,040
Speaker 6: He would be the one at the top.

809
00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:10,520
Speaker 3: But there's a couple of The thing I really like

810
00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:13,400
Speaker 3: to do for sleeper running backs is to find a

811
00:37:13,600 --> 00:37:16,040
Speaker 3: team with a bunch of you know, kind of aging

812
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:18,319
Speaker 3: veterans at the top and find who the rookie is

813
00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:19,799
Speaker 3: and take them late and see if you know. And

814
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:22,120
Speaker 3: that's that's how you get just a real difference maker.

815
00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:24,359
Speaker 3: So Jaden Blue and Dallas this year, it's it's an

816
00:37:24,400 --> 00:37:26,920
Speaker 3: unsettled backfield. We think they're going to be an offense

817
00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:29,200
Speaker 3: that scores a lot you know has you know, because

818
00:37:29,200 --> 00:37:31,040
Speaker 3: their defense is not good. I think we're playing at

819
00:37:31,080 --> 00:37:33,080
Speaker 3: a fast pace and so he if he emerges, he

820
00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:36,040
Speaker 3: could be great. Byshelle Touton, I don't know if I'm

821
00:37:36,040 --> 00:37:40,200
Speaker 3: not saying his first name is great On Jacksonville. Uh,

822
00:37:40,320 --> 00:37:43,360
Speaker 3: you know, he's similarly, you know, another another unsettled backfield

823
00:37:43,400 --> 00:37:46,160
Speaker 3: with an offense that's got a lot of potential. You know,

824
00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:48,680
Speaker 3: those are two guys in particular. They are pretty good

825
00:37:48,719 --> 00:37:50,680
Speaker 3: if you want a super late one. I mean you

826
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:52,760
Speaker 3: could say the same thing about Woodie Mark's in Houston.

827
00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:56,160
Speaker 3: Another unsettled backfield at Washington.

828
00:37:56,239 --> 00:37:57,200
Speaker 2: I mean he's flying up the board.

829
00:37:57,280 --> 00:37:59,359
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's another one. He's got a little expensive because

830
00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:01,640
Speaker 3: everyone's like all excited about him, and he's similarly there.

831
00:38:01,719 --> 00:38:03,560
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know if he has you know,

832
00:38:03,680 --> 00:38:05,959
Speaker 3: quite maybe the where he's going to get all the work,

833
00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:08,360
Speaker 3: but he could be a phenomenal talent and sort of

834
00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:10,600
Speaker 3: take a takeover there. So that's another one as well.

835
00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:12,640
Speaker 3: Those are the kind of players that I like to

836
00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:14,360
Speaker 3: make sure that I have on my bench.

837
00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:17,520
Speaker 7: Our thanks to Peter Shanky for joining us. He's founder

838
00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:20,960
Speaker 7: and president of roto Wire, and that does it for

839
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:24,040
Speaker 7: this edition of The Bloomberg Business of Sports. For Damian

840
00:38:24,120 --> 00:38:28,200
Speaker 7: Sasaur and Vanessa Berdomo, I'm Michael Barr. Tune in again

841
00:38:28,280 --> 00:38:30,439
Speaker 7: next week for the latest on the stories moving big

842
00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:32,800
Speaker 7: old money in the world of sports, and don't forget

843
00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:36,879
Speaker 7: to catch our podcast on all your podcast platforms. You're

844
00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:40,480
Speaker 7: listening to The Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio

845
00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:41,560
Speaker 7: around the world.