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GumGum Sports Signs Deal with Saints, Pelicans; Helps Brands Understand Sponsorship Values
The New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans have signed season-long partnerships with GumGum Sports to help brands better understand the value of their team sponsorships. The artificial intelligence and computer vision company quantifies the exposure brand partners receive across television, streaming and social platforms; qualifying impressions by clarity, prominence and share of voice. Their proprietary methodology then assigns a dollar value to a given sporting event based on the cost of buying equivalent reach/engagement. The compressive sponsorship measurement tool enables brands to maximize ROI.
Howie Long-Short: GumGum Sports is a division of GumGum Visual Intelligence, a company that has raised $36 million dollars to date. The only public company to have invested in the in-image ad company though, has been Morgan Stanley (MS). Nielsen (NLSN) is also playing in the machine-learning sports media valuation space. The company acquired the Israeli competitor vBrand back in August.
Fan Marino: The Saints and Pelicans have had a busy November. Earlier in the month, the teams announced a partnership with SeatGeek; making the online ticketing company the primary ticketing platform of New Orleans sports, beginning next season. They become the first NFL & NBA teams to sign-on with the upstart company. Saints officials were recently quoted saying they were looking for a more fan-friendly, hassle-free ticketing experience; a dig at long-time partner Ticketmaster (LYV).
ESPN Lays Off 2% of Workforce
ESPN laid off 150 employees on Wednesday, the majority within studio production, digital content and technology roles; behind-the-scenes positions. The cuts equate to roughly 2% of the company workforce. No on-air talent is being cut, but it is expected that management will let the contracts of several SportsCenter anchors expire within the next 12 months. The WWL laid off 100 staffers, including many on-air personalities, back in April; after cutting 300 positions in October 2015 (4-5% of the workforce).
Howie Long-Short: Despite the negative publicity surround ESPN of late, the company is still profitable. DIS reported the company’s cable unit, which also includes A&E and the Disney Channel, generated $1.24 billion in profit during fiscal Q4. ESPN is the crown jewel of that unit. The company may not be as profitable as it once was, but it’s not dying.
Fan Marino: Former ESPN Titans insider Paul Kuharsky was among those laid off in April. He’s since launched his own, team focused, paywalled site (paulkuharsky.com). For $5.99/mo. you can have access to Paul’s analysis and insight on the franchise, but for $150/mo. Paul will become your friend; phone number, golf game and drinks included. He offered 22 of those packages, sold them out and has since formed a waiting list. Brilliant. Howie and I have decided we too are now looking for friends.
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FIFA Struggling to Sell Sponsorships for ’18 World Cup
Despite the astronomical viewership ratings that the World Cup draws, FIFA has been struggling to sell sponsorship packages prior to the 2018 tournament in Russia. The toxic reputation (see 2015 corruption scandal) of soccer’s global governing body has put an end to U.S. and European companies investing in the world’s most watched sporting event. In fact, FIFA hasn’t signed a new U.S. or European sponsor since 2011; when Johnson & Johnson did a one tournament deal. As a result, FIFA is projecting a best-case scenario where advertising revenues remain flat in 2018; after growing $650 million in 2014, from $1 billion in 2010.
Howie Long-Short: 6 months remain before the start of the tournament and just 7 of 8 top-tier sponsorships ($135 million/per) have been sold. Just 4 of the 6 second-tier sponsorships ($67.5 million/per) are accounted for and 19 of 20 local sponsorships ($10.5 million/per) remain available. FIFA has also been unable to find a Russian broadcaster willing to pay the $100 million asking price for domestic rights to the ’18 tournament. The global governing body is on pace to lose more than $540 million this year; it simply can’t afford to leave $470 million in potential revenue on the table.
Fan Marino: Former Chelsea FC star Ashley Cole was in NYC this week as part of the club’s global outreach program. On Tuesday, the NYC Department of Environmental Protection joined FC Harlem and Chelsea FC in announcing plans for a new $3.5 million project that includes a covered soccer field; a first for grassroots soccer in New York. JWS had a chance to get his thoughts on if the U.S. missing the 2018 World Cup would set the sport back in America.
Cole: Hopefully it’s just a phase for this tournament. If you look at the other big countries that didn’t make it, do you say the same about them? I don’t think so. I just think they didn’t play well in the group stages and they got punished. I’ve been on an England team that didn’t make it to a Euro or a World Cup, it’s difficult. They have good young players coming through. MLS is growing. Hopefully they can regroup, get together and don’t think “it’s the end of the world”. Now to push on, improve as players and get ready for the next tournament.
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What is JohnWallStreet?
JohnWallStreet is not a person or location, but a destination for the educated sports fan.
While we won’t be publishing “hot takes” on LeBron’s relative greatness to Jordan, we will be offering up the most relevant sports related finance news, in easily digestible bites, with commentary from both the equities analyst and sports fanatic perspectives.
We’ll cover publicly traded professional teams & stadiums, television networks, apparel & footwear companies, equipment companies, ticketing companies, content and facilities providers. If it trades on Wall Street, and has a sports angle, it’s in our wheel house.
Howie Long-Short and Fan Marino will be providing their expert opinions on each story. They have slightly different areas of expertise. Fan Marino is a firm believer that the SEC is the premier football conference. Howie Long-Short knows it as the Securities & Exchange Commission. Fan Marino lives and dies with the college selection of 5 star, blue chip recruits. Howie Long-Short spends his days analyzing blue chip stocks. Howie Long-Short knows that Black Monday occurred on October 19th, 1987. Fan Marino swears it happens every January after Week 17. You get the point.