PointsBet Holdings Limited has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, PointsBet USA Inc (PointsBet), and NBCUniversal Media LLC (NBCUniversal), a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, have agreed to amend the Media Services Agreement dated 27 August 2020 (Original Agreement).
“NBCUniversal have been a wonderful partner to work with since the inception of this agreement. PointsBet has trialled and learned a lot since going live in the US market. We are thrilled to have agreed with NBCU mutually beneficial adjustments to our Agreement that fit perfectly within our more targeted, localised strategy which is informed by those learnings. Put simply, we very firmly believe a dollar spent in marketing on any other platform does not go close to rivalling the terms and efficacy of the partnership we have with NBCU. We are fortunate to have access to unrivalled media properties via NBCU and they are an integral component of our overall strategy that is contributing to PointsBet’s strong US growth,” Sam Swanell, Managing Director and Group CEO at PointsBet, said.
Under the amended agreement, the remaining committed marketing spend for Years 3 to 5 of the Original Agreement will be invested over an additional two years, now representing Years 3 to 7, thus significantly reducing the average annual marketing spend to match PointsBet’s optimum desired level of investment under its more localised, targeted strategy.
PointsBet maintains preferred pricing benefits and integration exclusivity in the sports betting category at a local and regional level, including across NBCU’s Regional Sports Networks. PointsBet also maintains its online casino integration exclusivity at a local, regional, and national level.
PointsBet has relinquished sports betting integration exclusivity over NBCUniversal’s national media assets, however, PointsBet retains a “second look” for all national NBCUniversal assets. NBCUniversal will be permitted to appoint one additional “Official Sports Betting Partner” of NBC Sports.
As part of the amended agreement the portfolio of available assets for investment is expanded to now also include Peacock, sports programming on USA Network and CNBC digital. In addition, the amended agreement allows PointsBet to more heavily utilize Comcast’s EffecTV platform. With an estimated reach of 96 million US adults, EffecTV allows PointsBet to target audiences with postcode level precision across linear TV, streaming and video on demand.
The total committed marketing spend for the remaining 5 years (28 August 2022 to 27 August 2027) is $294 million, with $25 million of this commitment having already been paid as at 31 December 2022 (leaving $269 million remaining).
The total commitment for the current year (ending 27 August 2023) (Year 3) is $50 million (a reduction of 43% from the Original Agreement).
Should the Options issued to NBCUniversal at the time of the Original Agreement not be exercised, instead of a lump sum repayment of the Option Premium Value (approximately A$105 million) by the Company at the end of Year 5, this amount will be applied to make increased payments for Media Services across Years 6 and 7. Where this is the case, the total cash commitment over the remaining 5 years of the term, applied largely on an equal annual basis, will be $270.4 million (as noted above, $25 million of which has already been paid), with the balance to be covered by the remaining value of the Shares previously issued to NBCUniversal.
