Lucrative TV deals offer hope: That said, the resumption of sport has allowed teams to honor lucrative TV broadcasting commitments, providing them with a huge financial safety net. For instance, the majority of the NBA’s revenue comes from such agreements, such as its nine-year, $24 billion contract with ESPN and Turner Sports. MLB also signed a new $3 billion media deal in June, demonstrating the enduring financial pull of professional sports even amid a global pandemic. However, it’s clear that not all teams and leagues have been so lucky. Take the NHL, which does not have a particularly large TV audience, relying even more heavily on matchday revenue, as do lower \-level teams across all sports. That doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t offset any losses though, with salary caps reductions and luxury tax thresholds put forward as solutions, showing that sports teams won’t go down without a fight.
Increased sports betting shows interest remains: On the whole, the sports sector has struggled in recent months, but that certainly isn’t true for sports betting. Even though there have been no “real” sports to wager on, gamblers have instead turned their attention to e-sports. In fact, some bookmakers have seen the number of e-sports bets increase fortyfold since March, while worldwide esports gambling revenue is expected to double this year to about $14 billion. And with the return of professional sports in Europe, gambling volume on sports including soccer, golf and NASCAR racing has surged, showing that interest in sport remains intact. Expect the same to happen once the likes of NBA, MLB and NFL come back here.
Jeff Goldberg is the Editor-in-Chief of Sports Intel, a premium network providing sports fans with news, resources and analytics into the world of sports. Jeff was the former team reporter for the San Diego Fleet and covered the UConn women’s basketball team for The Hartford Courant newspaper. He is the author of two books about the Uconn team: Bird at the Buzzer and Unrivaled.
Shed no tears for sports franchise owners, the vast majority of them are already filthy rich, owning teams is a side business for billionaires…Its the workers who are suffering, and businesses down the line like sports bars. All NFL teams make guaranteed profits on TV money, and NBA and MLB also rake in huge TV dollars. Not everyone is the Lakers or Cowboys, but they all profit on the Lakers and Cowboys. Yes an NFL team owner must pay a huge premium to buy a team, but they must also be voted on by the rest of the owners, its a fraternity that denied Donald Trump a foot in the door because he did not pass muster. The general public goes along thinking the pllayers are overpaid because they compare player salaries to real life, that is a huge error, NFL players get their heads bashed in for peanuts when you consider the money they generate for owners…
I figured out how to possibly fix it. Give everyone on every sports team a dose of hydroxychloroquine once every 2 weeks. If none of them get sick, (and I do not mean test positive, more people test positive with no effects than get sick from it), then we get 3 positives. The drug works, like Fauci said in 2005, and we get sports and the players are safe. If the players do get sick, then the drug does not work, and we are no better off than we are now.
Mr Lucky: Hydroxychloroquine has serious side effects, its only indicated for malaria, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis… If it is so effective for Covid our President could easily mobilize the FDA and CDC instead of send out random tweets every few weeks… Herman Cain just paid the ultimate price for ignoring the health professionals, this virus has no easy solutions…