Fubo Sportsbook live in Iowa
Fubo Sportsbook has gone live in Iowa, heralding a potentially game-changing maiden entry to the US online sports betting market.
The biggest news to emerge from Fubo Sportsbook’s roll-out in Iowa on November 3 was that it represented the first launch of a mobile sportsbook integrated into an owner-operated live television streaming subscription service, courtesy of mother brand fuboTV.
Fubo Sportsbook, the Chicago-based arm of the New York-headquartered fuboTV subsidiary Fubo Gaming, took to Twitter to trumpet that it was “the next generation of online sports betting.”
The simplicity and convenience of the new sportsbook’s appeal caught the attention of sports business reporter and senior executive producer for Action Network, Darren Rovell. In a Tweet, Rovell said quite plainly that “the app syncs to what someone is watching on [fuboTV] so it automatically loads to the game a viewer is watching.”
For Iowans aged 21 years or over with a fuboTV subscription, Fubo Sportsbook’s novel user interface could possibly draw their allegiance away from FanDuel and DraftKings.
The beauty of the sportsbook — which is available online and downloadable via iOS — is its Watching Now feature. FuboTV viewers can choose from thousands of live professional and collegiate sporting events, with which the Fubo Sportsbook app instantly integrates, allowing bettors to view wagering content and make synchronized wagers while they watch, even when changing channel.
Fubo eying new frontiers
Co-founder and CEO of fuboTV David Gandler sees the sportsbook’s launch as a triple-win, improving engagement and customer retention and driving advertising spend.
Fubo TV’s vision is to be a trailblazer in defining “a new category of interactive sports and entertainment television.”
both industries “truly coming together in one ecosystem”
Gandler said this week’s Iowa launch was pivotal for the US sports betting and entertainment sectors, as it saw both industries “truly coming together in one ecosystem” for the first time. The CEO stressed that Fubo Sportsbook was not simply a fuboTV add-on, but “a product synced with the live TV streaming experience.”
Fubo Gaming president, Scott Butera, highlighted the need to marry the rapid expansion of sports betting and entertainment with sports fans’ growing appetite for more personalized and immersive experiences. Via Fubo Sportsbook, Butera said, his firm was “thrilled […] to bring U.S. sports fans a next-level interactive viewing and betting experience.”
Uniquely positioned
According to a Forbes report on October 29, which cites Zion Market Research’s projection that it expects the online sports wagering market to hit $155bn by 2024, the launch of Fubo Sportsbook is an important event to track in Q4. The business magazine posits Fubo is sitting prettier than its rivals because it “owns its audience and it’s an upsell rather than a new user acquisition loop.”
Fubo has now opened the taps to its full monetization potential. A combination of subscriptions, advertising, and wagering on international sports, are all flowing into Fubo’s single unified platform.
For Beth Kindig, tech startup analyst and consumer tech contributor to Forbes, Fubo hits many indicators in terms of strength of product. Kindig posits “investors will either relent if Fubo puts up a Q3 beat or they will get left behind in the dust once sports betting launches.”
Now that Fubo Sportsbook has launched in Iowa, the market will be paying close attention to the brand’s progress.