FuboTV Seeks To Launch Sportsbook In 2021 After Acquiring Vigtory

• FuboTV’s acquisition is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2021.
• Vigtory is licensed to operate in Iowa, but FuboTV is looking to expand into further markets in the future.
• The streaming service expects to have launched an integrated online sportsbook by the end of the year.

NEW YORK – FuboTV’s ambitions to enter the legal sports betting market are starting to come into fruition as the streaming service announced its intent to purchase Vigtory, an online gaming platform on Tuesday.

While the finer details of the acquisition have not yet been revealed, the deal is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2021.

FuboTV, which has previously purchased Balto Sports last month, has been aggressively trying to pursue avenues into the legal sports betting industry. The company now plans on utilizing the sportsbook technology of Vigtory to launch in legal markets nationwide.

So far, Vigtory only has a deal with Casino Queen for the Iowa sports betting market but the company is actively pursuing markets in the eastern part of the U.S.

“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.”

Sam Rattener, founder of Vigtory will be the Chief Operating Officer of FuboTV’s gaming division. He’ll be joined by his co-CEO of Vigtory, Scott Butera. Butera will serve as president of the division.

“The proposed acquisition of Vigtory will give fuboTV the technology to build a consumer-driven sports betting product and launch it before the end of this year,” said Gandler. “It will also help us solve two hurdles that challenge other media companies who want to enter the wagering market. First, Sam and Scott have years of experience navigating the complex gaming regulatory environment and, in fact, already have a first market access agreement completed. Second, fuboTV can leverage its own first party user behavior data to understand our consumers’ viewing preferences, and when and how to prompt them to consider placing bets. Uniquely, fuboTV will be a media company and sportsbook all-in-one.”

FuboTV announced they want to launch a free-to-play game through the technology acquired from Balto Sports first before launching their first legal sports betting site. That free-to-play game is expected to launch in the Summer.

FuboTV’s share price jumped 34% after the announcement to $34.68.

News tags: Balto Sports | David Gandler | FuboTV | Online Sports Betting | Sam Rattener | Scott Butera | Vigtory