fuboTV announced today plans to acquire sports betting and interactive gaming company Vigtory, and expects to launch a sportsbook before the end of the year. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021.
fuboTV will use Vigtory’s sportsbook platform to begin offering sports betting to fubo customers. Vigtory’s co-CEOs are Sam Rattner, a digital sports entrepreneur, and Scott Butera, former president of interactive gaming at MGM Resorts International. The two will serve as president and COO of fuboTV’s gaming division.
fuboTV shared details of its plans for getting into the sports betting space in December when the company announced its acquisition of Balto Sports, after first announcing the plans during a Q3 earnings call.
“We believe online sports wagering is a highly complementary business to our sports-first live TV streaming platform,” said David Gandler, co-founder and CEO, fuboTV. “We don’t see wagering as simply an add-on product to fuboTV. Instead, we believe there is a real flywheel opportunity with streaming video content and interactivity. Our free to play gaming experience, which will be available to all consumers, will build further scale to fuboTV, essentially acting as another lead generator for driving subscribers to our streaming video platform and, ultimately, our sportsbook. We not only expect sports wagering to become a new line of business and source of revenue, but we also expect that it will increase user engagement on fuboTV resulting in higher ad monetization, better subscriber retention and reduced subscriber acquisition costs.”
“The addition of Vigtory to fuboTV is a pivotal event in the sports entertainment industry,” said Butera. “As sports fans increasingly desire interactive sports events, sports betting and related businesses such as iGaming and free to play contests have become a critical component of fan engagement. Combining fuboTV’s broad and deep offering of live streamed sporting events with Vigtory’s world-class sports betting products creates the ultimate sports betting experience for consumers.”
fuboTV recently disclosed preliminary Q4 2020 results, including expectations of reaching over 545,000 paid subscribers in 2020, an increase of more than 72% year-over-year.