fuboTV acquires Balto Sports as first step into online sports wagering market

Balto Sports is a Y Combinator company that develops tools for users to organize and play fantasy sports games. fuboTV intends to leverage its own proprietary technology along with Balto’s contest automation software to launch a free to play gaming offering.

In connection with the deal, Balto’s team will join fuboTV and will be instrumental in driving the company’s expansion into both free to play gaming and online sports wagering. The online sports wagering market is expected to reach $155 billion by 2024 according to Zion Market Research.

Additional announcements will be forthcoming

David Gandler, co-founder and CEO, fuboTV, commented, “As we said in our third quarter earnings announcement last month, fuboTV sees the online wagering space as complementary to our sports-first live TV streaming platform. We believe there are significant synergies between consumers who enjoy wagering and our subscribers who enjoy streaming live sports, creating a flywheel opportunity. As we’ve previously expressed, one of our goals with wagering is to expand our total available market (TAM) by developing another important revenue stream for fuboTV, as we are doing with our growing ad sales business.

“The acquisition of Balto Sports will enable us to build a first class, free to play experience that brings consumers the best games around live sports. From there, we see a natural progression to layer on real money wagering in regulated markets complementing fuboTV’s live streaming video for a highly engaging user experience within our platform. We will be strategic in our approach to wagering as we consider and evaluate different opportunities and will adjust our plans accordingly. We’re excited to launch sports wagering, integrate it into our core offerings and deliver what we believe will be a truly groundbreaking live TV streaming platform to consumers.”