Liberty Media says there are tremendous opportunities for its newest acquisition, Formula One Racing.
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia investment conference in New York, Liberty Media Chief Executive Greg Maffei said, “Less than 1 percent of revenues are from digital. They really have no organized digital effort. I think there’s a lot of things that can be done around gaming, virtual reality and augmented reality. There’s an enormous amount of video feed and data about the races that we are already capturing that we are not in any way processing incrementally for the dedicated fan, or opportunities around things like gambling. Outside of the United States there is a huge gambling opportunity in the sport, none of which we capitalize on.”
Maffei added revenues also could grow by switching from free-to-air to more pay television, more sponsorship deals and more races. “I think we have 17 sponsors, and we have three people working in sponsorship in F1. In contrast at Major League Baseball, a business we have some familiarity with through the Braves, there are 75 sponsors just in the U.S.,” Maffei said.
Liberty Media has interests in the Atlanta Braves baseball team, satellite radio service Sirius XM, entertainment group Live Nation and minority interests in Time Warner and Viacom.
The deal has an enterprise value of $8 billion, according to a company statement. Liberty Media has acquired an initial 18.7 percent stake from controlling shareholder CVC Capital Partners and plans to complete a cash and shares deal by first quarter 2017. American Chase Carey has been appointed as Formula One chairman; he will work with 85-year-old British magnate Bernie Ecclestone, who will remain as chief executive officer.
