Einhorn Bullish on fuboTV as Sports Fandom, Betting Become Interactive

Posted on: January 24, 2021, 06:41h. 

Last updated on: January 25, 2021, 10:14h.

Todd Shriber @etfgodfather Read More
Expertise: Financial, Gaming Business, Mergers and Acquisitions.

Streaming service provider fuboTV (NYSE:FUBO) has the support of one of Wall Street’s biggest names, a revelation that explains the stock’s rally late last week.

Einhorn fuboTV
Greenlight Capital’s David Einhorn. The hedge fund is bullish on fuboTV stock. (Image: Wall Street Journal)

On news that David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital was an early investor in the company and maintains a stake, fuboTV stock surged last Thursday. It followed that up by jumping 6.25 percent the next day on volume that was more than double the daily average.

Watching sports goes from being a passive experience to a highly engaging, active one,” wrote Einhorn in Greenlights fourth-quarter letter to clients. “Higher engagement leads to higher ad revenues and the ability to make other in-app sales to players.”

The hedge fund invested in the streaming company prior to the October 2020 initial public offering. It’s been a sweet deal for Greenlight. The fund’s cost basis on fuboTV stock and warrants is $5, according to Barron’s. It closed at $37.72 last Friday.

Einhorn knows what it means to take educated gambles. In addition to be a renowned hedge fund manager, he’s an accomplished poker player, with $5.18 million in career winnings and five cashes in World Series of Poker (WSOP) events.

Betting on Sports Wagering

In its short time as a public company, fuboTV is proving volatile. The shares are up 34.71 percent year-to-date and reside 39.44 percent below the all-time high.

It’s also been a controversial name, with some analysts calling it overvalued, and one saying the company is not the next DraftKings (NASDAQ:DKNG) or Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX). Einhorn disagrees, noting fuboTV and its sports wagering aspirations aren’t comparable to those of traditional sportsbook operators.

In the letter to clients, he points out that those bearish on the streaming company say it “won’t be able to compete with established books like William Hill or Caesars Entertainment,” adding that Greenlight looks at the fuboTV opportunity “qualitatively differently.”

Earlier this year, fuboTV acquired sports wagering firm Vigtory. It did so with the aim of rolling out a sportsbook app in 2021 that could eventually be integrated into the streaming platform.

Einhorn said the better comparisons for FUBO are video game companies, such as Activision Blizzard and Take-Two Interactive, not traditional sportsbook operators or standard streaming entertainment firms.

All About Interactive

The hedge fund manager’s bullish view on fuboTV in part revolves around the combination of streaming and sports wagering hastening evolution in the latter, making for a more interactive endeavor. Einhorn sees potential for a world in which, thanks to streaming, bettors can wager on outcomes of specific in-game events, not just spreads and totals.

“What if you bet 1:2 on whether Giannis (Antetokounmpo) will make the next free throw, 1:3 on whether Jacob deGrom’s next pitch will be a strike, or 20:1 that Aaron Judge will homer on the next at bat?” writes the hedge fund manager.

Under the aforementioned scenario, sports goes from passive to active for fans and bettors, and with that higher engagement comes opportunity for a company like fuboTV to generate higher advertising revenue, according to Einhorn.