The rise of Verizon, fall of Fantasy sports
Congress is debating on allowing sports gambling to be legal, which would allow Verizon to join that market and could be the end of Fantasy sports.
By Jake Snider ([email protected])
The debate on having sports gambling become legal has been debated in Congress for some time now, but the New York based phone giant, Verizon, is thinking of becoming part of this new market. Sport gambling has been a topic for debate for some time, and only resulted in the Supreme Court challenging the current federal prohibition on sports gambling. If passed then sport gambling will be seen and used in state’s casinos and racetracks within weeks, and possible earlier with March Madness. Because of all of this, Verizon has been meeting with experts to see if a sport forced online gambling venture was possible, but only if the law is changed.
The company has been looking into the possibility of running their own sport gambling website if the prohibition is lifted. The reason for this is because many investors estimate that a fully regulated U.S. sport gambling market would be worth as much as $15.8 billion in revenue. That could include 44 million customers wagering $245 billion annually. Due to the possibility of such high revenue Verizon has discussed the idea of being part of that market. Instead of trying to build a gambling business from the ground up, or try to acquire online sport betting companies that would rise after the law is change. They already own Yahoo and its popular sports fantasy business. |
The impact of sports gambling becoming legal in the U.S. will not only allow Verizon or any other company to create a gambling business, but would also affect any business such as Fanduel and Drafting. These companies own and operate a similar gambling market known as fantasy sport, which forecast mostly on creating a team of any player in the current season and face against other teams to win money. These act as a substitute to gambling, and if the law is changed, then fantasy sport leagues could see a decline in their player base and revenue.
Even through both Fanduel and Drafting have stated that they do have plans in place just in case The Supreme Court challenge is successful, but many businesses experts have said that Fantasy Sports will be less used by the public, mostly due to fantasy sports acting like gambling and most likely not be needed if big companies like Verizon are offering similar service. Congress is still deciding on the decision and the law may or may not be replaced, preventing Verizon from joining a market that hasn’t even been created. |