🏈 The Bitcoin Bowl

NFTs in the NFL… The LA Rams or the Cincinnati Bengals will become Super Bowl LVI champs when the final whistle blows this Sunday, but Matt Damon’s infamous Crypto.com commercial could steal the show. This Bowl could be known as the “Crypto Bowl” because it’ll be the first to feature crypto ads. Last year, the NFL allowed sports-betting ads during its programming for the first time. The deets:

• Crypto exchanges Coinbase, FTX, and Crypto.com are expected to run Bowl ads, some of which have sold for a record $7M per 30-second slot. Meanwhile, Budweiser’s commercial features NFTs, the metaverse, and Barbra Streisand.
• DraftKings is back for a second year, along with rookies Caesars and FanDuel. A record 31.5M Americans are estimated to bet nearly $8B on this year’s big game.

Super brownie points… The Bowl is the most-watched event in US sports, so it gives fast-growing companies a supersize opportunity to reach new users. Crypto and betting businesses have already been courting sports fans by teaming up with star athletes and sponsoring stadiums:

• Crypto.com paid a reported $700M to sponsor LA’s Crypto.com Arena (FYI: the Super Bowl is in LA’s other crypto arena, SoFi Stadium). Crypto exchange FTX sponsors Miami’s FTX Arena and partners with Tom Brady.
• DraftKings and FanDuel have linked up with the NBA, the NHL, and the MLB on official sports-betting partnerships and streaming rights.

Uber Pool is coming back… Bring an XL mask. Last quarter, Uber had more active users than ever (118M), as you ride-hailed to Taco Tuesday and ordered Taco Bell direct-to-couch. Uber's revenue jumped 83%, and it notches its second profitable quarter since IPO’ing 2019. Delivery made up over half of bookings, with rides close behind.

• Eats: It’s hard to get a Saturday reservation again, as Americans return to eateries. That didn’t hurt Uber Eats’ revenue, which jumped 77% to $2.4B. Eats also posted its first quarterly profit and is now the US’s fastest-growing food deliverer.
• Rides: Uber’s completed nearly 1.8B rides last quarter, up 8% from the previous quarter and 23% from 2020, but still slightly down from pre-pandemic. Meanwhile, Lyft’s active riders fell last quarter.

Super Uber… Uber has long hyped plans to become “the operating system for daily life.” “Super Apps” (think: Uber, DoorDash, Venmo, Amazon... all in one) are popular in Asia, but haven’t quite taken off in the US. Still, 11% of Americans surveyed want one app to manage their entire digital lives. On Thursday, Uber unveiled super-app-y ambitions:

• The past: In 2011, Uber had two offerings: Uber and Uber Black. Today, Uber offers more than 15 ways to get around, including scooters, shuttles, rental cars, and motorbikes. Plus, it delivers food, alcohol, groceries, and even pharmacy products.
• The future: Uber wants to let you book flights, shop for clothes, manage your finances, and buy concert tickets all in its app. Uber says the initiatives could help gross bookings reach $170B by 2024. But the stock slid anyway.

• #Growth: Twitter shares fell on news that profit dipped as ad-sales growth slowed last quarter. Unlike Meta, Twitter said Apple’s privacy changes weren’t so bad and that advertiser spend is starting to pick up.
• Fizz: Coke’s and Pepsi’s sales spiked last quarter as demand for “drinks away from home” (think: movie theaters, sports arenas) finally topped pre-pandemic levels. But inflation could sour profits this year.
• Cruise: President Biden rolled out plans to give states $5B to build EV chargers. He’s pledged to make EVs more affordable and have half of all new vehicles sold in the US be electric or hybrid by 2030.
• Flip: Zillow posted a $261M loss on record revenue in its latest earnings after its house-flipping biz flopped last year. While Zillow sold most of the leftover homes, it still lost an average of over $25K on each sale.
• Dine: European delivery biz Delivery Hero lost a third of its market value after warning that its pandemic-era sales boost will cool this year. Meanwhile, Grubhub parent Just Eat announced plans to delist from the Nasdaq.

• Earnings expected from: Warby Parker, Under Armour, Enbridge, and Dominion Energy

Authors of this Snacks own: Bitcoin, and shares of Uber, Twitter, Apple, and Amazon

ID: 2035173