Advertisement
Singapore markets closed
  • Straits Times Index

    3,224.01
    -27.70 (-0.85%)
     
  • S&P 500

    5,248.49
    +44.91 (+0.86%)
     
  • Dow

    39,760.08
    +477.75 (+1.22%)
     
  • Nasdaq

    16,399.52
    +83.82 (+0.51%)
     
  • Bitcoin USD

    70,633.33
    +714.47 (+1.02%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • FTSE 100

    7,967.07
    +35.09 (+0.44%)
     
  • Gold

    2,216.60
    +3.90 (+0.18%)
     
  • Crude Oil

    81.73
    +0.38 (+0.47%)
     
  • 10-Yr Bond

    4.1960
    0.0000 (0.00%)
     
  • Nikkei

    40,168.07
    -594.66 (-1.46%)
     
  • Hang Seng

    16,541.42
    +148.58 (+0.91%)
     
  • FTSE Bursa Malaysia

    1,530.60
    -7.82 (-0.51%)
     
  • Jakarta Composite Index

    7,288.81
    -21.28 (-0.29%)
     
  • PSE Index

    6,903.53
    +5.36 (+0.08%)
     

Streaming and gaming growth are raising 'the potential to bring in a partner': fuboTV CEO

fuboTV Co-Founder and CEO David Gandler sits down with Yahoo Finance Live to break down the streaming platform's second-quarter earnings, its growth plan for gaming and sports betting, and the outlook on future partnerships.

Video transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: All right, the streaming sector has taken a bit of a beating in recent weeks, but one player in the game is bucking that trend. fuboTV saw revenue subscribers, even ad revenue, rise well into double digits in the quarter. David Gandler is the founder and CEO of fuboTV. He joins us now. David, good to see you. Shares popping almost 20% on this news. It's football season. Here's your chance. If you've got an end zone dance, go ahead and do it. Tell us about the numbers.

DAVID GANDLER: Yeah, look, sequentially, obviously, you see somewhat of a deterioration in the numbers, but of course, that's seasonal. As you said, we're getting into football season. And this is where the rubber meets the road for Fubo. We're entering into growth mode in the back half of the year with, I would say, pretty relatively strong numbers in terms of advertising. I just saw that previous segment there. There are some macro trends and some uncertainty.

ADVERTISEMENT

But we're up 30 plus percent on the advertising side. And I think we could have done a lot better if we had leveraged some of the technology that we're putting in place sooner. So we feel pretty good about that, and looking forward to football season, as you said.

SEANA SMITH: David, tell us a little bit more about that technology and how that will give you an advantage over some of your peers in the industry because like you said, your advertising numbers were actually pretty good, 21.7 million. That's up from 16 and 1/2 million last year. And there has certainly been a challenging environment out there for you and the other players in your space.

DAVID GANDLER: Yeah, for us, again, we're in the addressable TV space. 96% of our viewers are watching sports. More importantly, they're watching it on CTV. So you're seeing a migration of TV ad dollars to connected devices, where there's better targeting. We call that addressable advertising.

And so, given where we are today, with the improvement in technology that we're implementing this quarter and into the end of 2022, our hope is to be able to optimize our pods, optimize our header bidding, to make sure we're getting the highest CPM in terms of the content that we're offering.

Last but not least, I think given the World Cup now, which will be in the end of November, fourth quarter time frame, that should put further pressure on the inventory. And so we're very confident that we'll see higher CPMs in the back half of the year.

DAVE BRIGGS: Certainly, David, some excitement over your entrance and expansion in the gaming space. I know you're searching for a partner. Can you tell us about your plans in that space and how difficult it is to compete with the likes of DraftKings, who we discussed earlier, and FanDuel?

DAVID GANDLER: Yeah, well, unfortunately, because of the macro uncertainty, we're not going to get a chance to find out. The assumptions under which we made the decision to get into gaming were last year, where the cost of capital was relatively cheap, and the time horizon to achieve profitability was significantly longer. But given this new reality we live in, it makes it much more difficult for us to be able to build out a gaming business within our TV platform.

But we're still very bullish on the intersection of video and gaming. We think that integrated experiences build defensibility. And so one of the directions we're taking as part of a strategic review is to look at the potential to bring in a partner. I also want to note, though, that we are launching in New Jersey.

That launch is imminent as soon as we receive approval from the New Jersey Gaming Commission. And we're hoping to be able to demonstrate some of the very compelling product integrations that we've developed for in a way that allows us to turn passive viewers into active participants.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, David, explain the fact that you're expanding at a time when you're also shopping around this product. I think many investors, maybe some analysts, are trying to make sense of the two moves. I guess, why are you expanding at a time when you're also trying to find that right strategic partner for you?

DAVID GANDLER: Yeah, well, when we say expanding, I mean, we know what the cost associated with developing this business in the 11 markets where we have market access licenses in. This is just one of the two additional markets that we're going into. I think this will provide a lot of visibility for a potential partner as to what are the opportunities.

And let's not forget. You have a number of customers on the platform today that if we're able to get them to start betting, they are immediately profitable because there is no marketing costs associated with turning those viewers into players. So there's a lot of value there. We've already done the work. It wouldn't make sense not to launch it. And the core opportunity is to really drive TV viewers into the book. So it's not going to be a significant cost for us to launch in New Jersey alone.

DAVE BRIGGS: And David, coming out of COVID, I don't know if you're able to quantify or even anecdotally tell us about the importance of live sports right now as we come out of COVID to your business model, and frankly, the entire sector.

DAVID GANDLER: Yeah, look, I think, obviously, sports is very important. If you look over the last couple of years, 95 to 97 of the most viewed programs are sports, most of which are NFL games. But the reality is that gravity is taking its toll on the whole sector. And you're starting to see changes even in the [INAUDIBLE] space, where companies like Netflix are now releasing batches of seasons versus the full season. You're starting to see discussions around ad-supported video.

And then on top of that, you have consumers that are now stacking services, which are becoming burdensome and costly. So I think we're very well positioned. We're a sports first cable TV replacement service. And with continued uncertainty and pressure on discretionary income, it only makes sense for people to move from a traditional cable bundle to a streaming bundle like Fubo, which allows them to maintain their current lifestyle and cut $500 to $1,000 worth of traditional TV costs.

SEANA SMITH: And David, real quick, one more follow-up on that wagering business discussion, when you're talking about those potential partners, who is that potential partner? Can you give us any names? Are you looking at major sportsbooks or any details that you can give us in that space?

DAVID GANDLER: Well, what's interesting is we've seen a significant amount of inbound, just in the last 14 hours. And it's really, I would say, across the spectrum. Still too early to provide any additional visibility on that. But over the coming weeks, I'm sure there'll be more information that we'll be able to provide.

SEANA SMITH: Well, David, then you've got to come back over the next couple of weeks--

DAVID GANDLER: Absolutely.

SEANA SMITH: --and let us know when you guys are ready to make that announcement. All right David Gandler, thanks so much for taking the time.