Weekly Roundup – Week of October 23rd, 2023

"Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to help bring the algorithm-driven personalization that consumers are accustomed to on e-commerce and social media platforms to the world of sports betting.
SharpLink Gaming, a start-up that specializes in tech solutions for internet betting, is developing an AI-powered personalization and recommendation engine called BetSense that aims to use machine learning to tailor sports betting experiences based on the interests and preferences of individual users.
"When you hear about AI being applied to sports, everyone agrees sports is behind," SharpLink co-founder and CEO Rob Phythian told FOX Business. "It’s not like Netflix or your financial stuff, it’s very transactional. So everybody agrees with that. But to solve this problem it’s a really big build and integration, and the integration part is the hardest.""

"In preparation for an ESPN bridal show, Disney boss Bob Iger offered a first peek behind the curtains on Thursday that revealed just how crucial a contributor the network is to his bottom line.
In a nutshell, investors now have definitive proof the U.S. sports broadcaster is a bigger profit center than Disney’s entire movie and television business combined, including everything from Marvel Studios to Disney+.
Fresh from a contract extension, boomerang CEO Iger is on the hunt for a strategic partner for the 80%-owned subsidiary, someone who has the wherewithal to help transition the business from cable to digital as more and more Americans cut the cord."

"Two stories caught my eye this week regarding play-by-play sports on the radio; both cases involved baseball.
The first had to do with WIP-FM/Philadelphia, which earned a huge share of the ratings during broadcasts of the Philadelphia Phillies-Miami Marlins Wildcard games in early October, at least with the targeted demographic of men aged between 25 and 54. The first two hours of game one earned an astonishing 50+ average in the demo, meaning that over 50% of men aged 25-54 listening to the radio were listening to that game.
What is even more interesting is that it was in-home listening that drove the ratings, not just people in cars, at work, or otherwise unable to tune into the television broadcasts."

"The Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to move forward on a proposal to restore open internet rules, which were repealed during the Trump administration, with a final vote likely to come next year.
The commissioners at the Democratic-led agency voted 3 to 2 along party lines to kick off a months long process to bring back so-called net neutrality regulations that prohibit broadband providers from blocking or slowing down services like Google and Netflix on their networks."

"This week, we learned that Spectrum will be switching its focus from traditional cable TV to streaming only. Current Spectrum customers can keep their TV service, but new customers will be pushed to the company’s new streaming platform using the Xumo streaming boxes.
Spectrum is not alone in this move, as several other cable TV companies announced they would shut down TV altogether this year or switch over to a streaming service."

"This week, the indie music platform Bandcamp laid off roughly half its staff after its second change of ownership in as many years. The site’s new owner, music-licensing service Songtradr, has promised to “keep all the existing Bandcamp services that fans and artists love,” but artists themselves sense a turning point.
...
Meanwhile, Spotify has its own news for musicians worried about making a living: a new “Merch Hub,” where users are recommended products based on what they’ve streamed, as well as new profile pages through which artists can sell live tickets and promote merchandise. Musicians can also direct benevolent listeners to CashApp or crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe. These are, in Spotify’s words, ways to accomplish its “mission” of “enabling artists to live off their art.” In context, artists might read the offer another way:
“Hey, we’re the only game in town. Might as well play.”"

In a followup to CRM's The State of Sports Media report, Sean Bos has written a must-read entry further detailing our findings about sports betting.
57% of sports audiences bet on sports. And yet merely talking about sports betting is not enough to make a show successful...