Houston Dynamo FC has signed a multi-year deal with Fubo Gaming. According to Yahoo News, the partnership could be worth as much as $178 million, which would make it one of the largest commercial deals in soccer history.
The partnership has two main parts: a sponsorship deal and a market-access agreement. The latter could pave the way for Fubo to acquire a gaming license in Texas should sports betting become legal there.
The deal includes a $10 million signing bonus, and Fubo is committing to spend $1 million per year for marketing rights before Texas legalizes sports betting, according to someone familiar with the terms, who was granted anonymity because the negotiations were private. Should the state legalize betting in a way that gives sports teams the right to distribute licenses, Fubo will pay the club an additional $15 million bonus, then commit to another $15 million annually over a 10-year period.
That $15 million annual commitment is comprised of $7.5 million for marketing rights and a guaranteed $7.5 million in net gaming revenue, the person said. In total, if it takes another three years for Texas to legalize sports betting, the overall value of the deal would be at least $178 million.
“It’s a big number,” said Dynamo President John Walker said. “In MLS, when you look at naming rights deals and jersey partnerships, those are usually pretty sizable, and I’m not sure any of them are necessarily as big as this one. So it has to rank right up there—if it’s not the biggest it’s very close.”
Fubo Gaming is hoping to grow in a crowded U.S. sports betting industry by integrating gaming options directly with live sports viewership. As an example, the company released a demo of an app feature that would automatically load relevant odds to users’ phones synced to the game that they’re currently watching. The sportsbook is live in Iowa and Arizona, with more states on the way.
Under the Dynamo deal, which starts this season and includes the NWSL’s Houston Dash, Fubo will have advertising on-site during games. The company will also have a presence on the club’s broadcast, digital and social platforms, and branding on the front of the Dynamo and Dash training tops. Most of this will start as FuboTV marketing, but transition to include Fubo Gaming if the company’s sportsbook goes live in Texas.
Texas is expected to be a huge market for sports betting. With a population of about 29 million, it is the second-largest state in the country behind California. Texas also has five of the 15 largest cities in the U.S. and is home to 11 teams in the five major U.S. leagues.
“Our plan is very much to be a national sports betting company,” Fubo Gaming president Scott Butera said in an interview cited by Yahoo News. “We have a national streaming platform, and our desire is to promote sports betting within our streaming platform, so the more states that we’re in, the more we can cross over between streaming customers and wagering customers.”
