Friday Dump 🥟 - Sad FuboTV, EA NIL deal, Prime the moneymaker

Hello again, Friday Dump 🥟

Each Friday, we’ll breakdown 3 sports business stories that have caught our eye throughout the week. They will be assembled in the following format:

🔴 - Stories that make us stop, think, and question.

🟡 - Stories with a hint of risk and unpredictability.

🟢 - Stories that make us feel good to go and empowered.

Strap on in.

🔴 Good luck, FuboTV. On Tuesday, word around the courts leaked out that FuboTV launched a civil lawsuit against Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery, alleging that these media conglomerates have been engaging in anticompetitive practices for quite some time and continue to do so with their skinny sports bundle app, which is intended to launch later this year (get yo popcorn 🍿 ready!).   

• Oh you’ve never heard of FuboTV? Well, it’s another live TV streaming platform that was launched in 2015 with the intention of focusing on live sports (mostly soccer).

  • It was considered the first streaming platform to adopt an industry standard for handling sports blackouts.

• Now, FuboTV isn’t necessarily wrong in their frustrations. With these companies forming this joint venture, this could effectively “box-out” FuboTV and other streaming competitors and incentivize them to not offer premium content to them and others.

  • What else are they bothered by? Well, they also believe these companies have forced them to accept bundling requirements to be able to broadcast certain content and imposed licensing fees above the market rate — which has led to higher prices for consumers.

🟡 EA Sports at least offering something for players. The buzz is real and it hasn’t stopped. We went over the details in our last edition of the Friday Dump, but now we’re starting to get some clarity, especially when it comes to athletes wanting to be involved with the new NCAA Football 25 video game. According to sources close to Electronic Arts (EA) (oh wow that sounded cool, kinda felt like an insider there 😉), they are set to send out NIL offers worth $600 each to more than 11,000 athletes who wish to involve their “name, image, and likeness” (NIL) in the video game. Sounds nice right? Well…

• Beyond this one-time payment, players will not receive royalties tied to game sales — which is very common when it comes to sports video games.

• However, it’s hard to argue this isn’t a nice step forward for college athletes during the NIL era. Offers are going out to all 85 scholarship players in each of the 134 FBS (Division 1-A) programs. And this is believed to be the largest NIL deal to date.

  • EA is also apparently going to be offering “ambassador” contracts to players who promote the game through their social media.

• Just the news of this video game release alone was extremely positive, as the stock is up ~27% over the last 12 months.

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🟢 It’s a bird, it’s a plane, nahh it’s Prime. When Deion Sanders took over as the head football coach at the University of Colorado (CU) in 2023, expectations were low. Reporters, talkshow hosts, and Twitter experts (X-perts??) all thought this was a gimmick. The Buffs just came off a 1-win season in 2022. They had not won more than 5 games in a season since 2016. And somehow they caught the rare, flashy, and most personable fish in the sea this past offseason in Coach Prime. According to a write-up from Sportico, CU’s multimedia rights (MMR) revenue jumped by 51% after Prime’s first year as head coach.

• CU’s MMR is managed by a third-party company called, Learfield (rights-holder for over 200 schools including powerhouses UCLA and Florida State)…and let’s just say CU and Coach Prime did well for themselves and for Learfield 💰.

  • What does MMR entail? Learfield manages money from these schools that are generated from sponsorships, radio advertisements, digital signage, and other commercial opportunities.

• Under their current contract, CU receives 60% of the first $5 million of adjusted gross revenue (AGR). Then 65% of everything over $5 million (see Table 1).

  • For context: last year, there was no AGR over $5 million and CU brought in ~$3 million in rights fees.

  • This year, the total AGR is $7.2 million, so CU will see more money at the 65% share.

  • CU is currently projected to receive $4.5 million under the agreement in 2024.

• It’s no secret Coach Prime has brought a new swag to Boulder, even though the Buffs only won 4 games this year. CU hosted College Gameday, TV ratings were sky high, and they sold out every home game for the first time in school history!

  • With that increased attention, Learfield was able to increase revenue from current and new sponsors…naturally.

  • And to put a cherry on top, CU and Learfield signed a new 10-year contract, starting in 2025, where CU will receive 65% of the first $10 million of AGR. Then 70% of anything above that. The contract also includes guaranteed minimums, which start at $4 million in the first year and rise to ~$5.4 million by 2035.