-written by Fernando-
FuboTV is a live tv streaming company that focuses its efforts on sports. In my opinion, when comparing $FUBO to their main competitors YouTube TV and Hulu, Fubo has the best selection of channels in their lineup especially when it comes to variety of sports. All of these companies provide the common regional sports like football and basketball but where Fubo separates itself from its competitors is in their selections of soccer from all the main leagues in Europe and North/South America.
The reason $FUBO is peaking my interest right now is because of the recent news of their financial and subscriber numbers continuing to grow at a good pace despite their price increase and their stock price taking a dive this past year to their lowest price in company history nearing $2 per share. Fubo recently reported their revenue numbers for the second quarter of $221M compared to their $131M of the second quarter of last year, but the company is still operating at a loss. What also helped spike $FUBO stock last week up nearing $4 per share is the news of the company taking a more conservative approach to growth as well as a revamp to the live sports betting feature.
The statement from $FUBO was that they were looking to seek outside help to “strategically review” their live sports betting feature. With the US betting laws seeming to be opening up more and more, this is a great opportunity for Fubo to potentially abandon their in-house sportsbook and collaborate with bigger names in sportsbooks like FanDuel ($PDYPY) or DraftKings ($DKNG). The sports betting feature is really what sets FuboTV apart from their competitors; it is a very unique feature that can potentially be setting them up to grow and succeed.
But is the subscription and company attractive enough to invest? Well I have looked on reviews and forums for international and domestic users and they seem frustrated with the user interface as well as the fact that they are somewhat forced to use FuboTV to watch the English Premier League because of DAZN ending their relationship with the EPL. Here is a brief summary of what I like and dislike about $FUBO.
What I like:
- Best selection of live sports compared to their competitors.
- Seems to be the only live tv streaming service to offer international soccer along with normal cable.
- A very unique live sports betting feature that can be easily improved with the possible collaboration of bigger or multiple sportsbooks.
- New conservative approach to growth with cost efficiency could really work well considering they have a business cycle with football season and their subscriber count.
What I dislike:
- The technology and user interface is often complained about on reviews which make investing unattractive.
- Reported outages on the app seem too frequent for many users based on online reviews.
- The price per month is very steep and not competitive at all.
- The focus on sports is great but it does not seem to be really concentrated enough because of the huge packages you must buy.
- Company is still operating at a loss.
In conclusion, I like the ideas that Fubo brings. It mixes its live sports streams with online betting which I think can turn into something big. A bigger focus on sports and a cheaper bundle for sports channels would be amazing but that’s just wishful thinking on my end. Of course, the price of the stock is low which can be attractive for potential growth but for a stock that has been falling for the past year, it seems like a very high risk situation. Overall, I would be very careful when placing any bet on $FUBO right now but I wouldn’t count it out for the future. I believe they can turn things around; they have the subscriber numbers, all they need is some slight fixes. I think the best thing to do right now is to keep up with their latest news and wait to see if they agree to collaborate with a big name in sports betting or get acquired by a bigger company. Don’t forget that I’m not a financial advisor so do your own DD before making any final investment decision.