đ Super bet Bowl
Hey Snackers,
Barney may be purple, but the talking dinosaur has Mattel seeing green. The toy maker plans to relaunch "Barney & Friends" with a new show, a movie, and a YouTube series â plus clothes, toys, books, and merch. Aka: one happy franchise family.
Stocks climbed yesterday ahead of todayâs consumer-price report. Investors expect to see inflation cooling again in January, which would signal that the Fed's hikes are working.
Super Bowl sports betting hits records as companies seize on the blockbuster moment
âWho sat on the remote?!â... Itâs no surprise that Tubiâs ad caused so much stress this Sunday. Super Bowl gambling set sportsbook records this year, with an estimated 50M+ Americans wagering over $16B (double last yearâs estimate). It was the first Bowl to take place in a state with legalized sports betting, which was a boost for betting apps. A highlight reel:
- MGM Resorts, which runs the BetMGM app plus sportsbooks on the Vegas Strip, said it was BetMGMâs most successful Super Bowl and most-bet-on single-game sporting event ever.
- FanDuel said it was processing 50K bets/second at its peak, and averaged 2M active users throughout the game.
- DraftKings predicted that the Bowl was going to be its largest customer-acquisition event of the year. (Oh, and one of its bettors won $2.7M on a $1.7M wager on the Chiefs.)
What happens in Vegas⊠hasnât stayed in Vegas. Gambling platforms had strong growth last year as more states legalized sports betting. Itâs now legal in 36 states plus DC, while mobile betting is allowed in 26 states (up from 18 a year ago). Americans placed $73B worth of legal sports bets last year, up 70% from 2021 â and sports-betting companies raked in nearly $6B from those wagers. Meanwhile, calls to the national hotline for people with gambling problems have soared.
Blockbuster events can be growth âfreebiesâ⊠The Super Bowl super-charged the sports-betting industry by simply existing. Companies have splurged on celeb-studded marketing to compete for customers in the crowded space. But now theyâre starting to shift their focus to achieving profitability â and milking blockbuster events for organic growth. Sportsbooks are already accepting bets for next yearâs Bowl, whichâll take place in Vegas for the first time.
Amazonâs taking a huge cut from its sellers, but businesses will (probably) keep listing anyway
Sounds like Ticketmaster⊠actually Amazon. The e-shopping titan is charging fat fees to drum up fresh cash. Last year, Amazon took an average 50%+ cut from each third-party transaction, up from 40% in 2018. Third-party sellers are non-Amazon merchants who list on Amazon. They make up over half of Amazonâs sales, providing everything from beach umbrellas and sneakers to âgently usedâ TVs.
- Before: Sellers have been handing over more per transaction to Amazon for the past six years, but were able to stomach the higher cuts as sales on Amazon soared.
- After: Amazonâs coming off its slowest annual sales growth in history, and wants to leverage its nearly 2M small and midsize third-party sellers to fatten margins.
Not so prime⊠As the ecomm boom cools, third-party sellers have lured shoppers by ramping up discounts instead of spending more on Amazonâs #sponsored listings. As growth slows in its core business, Amazonâs looking for new ways to drum up fresh revenue. Last month the company launched a new "Buy with Prime" feature that allows Prime members to enjoy fast payment and delivery options on non-Amazon sites.
Itâs hard to leave the worldâs biggest showcase⊠While delisting from Amazon can be more financially efficient for some businesses, many feel like they canât do without it. Amazonâs third-party sellers account for about a quarter of all online purchases in the US, and its fulfillment services (think: storage, delivery) can cost 30% less than competitors. The tide could be changing: 60% of Amazon sellers use at least one other e-comm platform, and half plan to add another this year.
What else weâre Snackinâ
- Profitir: Palantir shares popped 16% after the secretive software company reported its first quarterly profit. The big-data biz, which got an early boost thanks to NSA, CIA, and FBI contracts, said government revenue rose 23%.
- Ping: Twilio, the customer-comms company that helps apps like Uber and DoorDash send you ETA texts, said it was cutting an additional 1.5K employees. Itâs yet another symptom of techâs downsizing spree.
- BUSDted: Regulators told Paxos to stop issuing the Binance-affiliated BUSD (the third-largest stablecoin). Meanwhile, the SEC's reportedly readying to sue Paxos, claiming BUSD is an unregistered security.
- Dip: M&M's maker Mars Wrigley was fined after two workers fell into a chocolate tank and had to be rescued by firefighters. Regulators called the incident "serious" and blamed a lack of adequate safety training.
- Inside: A proposed SEC rule would make it harder for corporate higher-ups to skirt insider-trading regs. Insiders would need to wait at least 90 days after setting up a prearranged trading plan before selling stock.
Tuesday
- January consumer-price index
- Valentineâs Day
- Earnings expected from Airbnb, GoDaddy, TripAdvisor, NerdWallet, TransUnion, and Marriott International
Authors of this Snacks own shares: of Amazon and Uber
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