04/15/19: Tiger Woods wins Masters, bettor nets $1.19 million payout

Good morning. It’s Monday April 15, 2019 and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.

The Masters was a bonanza for CBS– third-round coverage on Saturday was the highest-rated Saturday golf telecast on any network in four years, since 2015’s Masters third round (6.5/16), with a ratings increase of 5% from last year’s third round (5.7/13) and a 6.0/15 average household metered market rating/share. But Tiger Woods’ dramatic comeback win on Sunday – his fifth Masters triumph and first since 2005 – left one Woods believer particularly happy. A Nevada resident placed an $85,000 bet on Woods to win, at 14-1 odds, for a payout of $1.19 million, the largest single U.S. payout in the history of William Hill Casino. “It’s a painful day for William Hill – our biggest loss ever,” said Nick Bogdanovich, director of trading, “but a great day for golf.”

It’s amazing how a healthy Tiger Woods can change the narrative in sports. With that in mind, we look to the growing area of health and wellness as a platform for media and business. With athletes like Michael Phelps speaking out about mental health, scores of players current and former engaging in businesses around Cannabis and CBD, the obesity epidemic, and advances in analytics and training getting everyone from the weekend warrior to the All-American back on the field of play faster, wellness as a platform has never been bigger or more robust for engagement.

One of the relatively new platforms looking to capture both original content and trends in everything from injury recovery to healthy eating and trends across the scope of business is sportsmd.com. We asked founder and editor Tom Carter about the opportunities and the landscape for sportsmd.com in the coming months.

On the increase in traffic and content: We started talking just about injury and recovery for everyone from the elite athlete to the Little League pitcher, and realized with all the aspects of health and wellness around athletics we were limiting ourselves. When we started to talk about topics like CBD, and mental health recovery, as well as topics like concussion and training for marathons, we saw interest and engagement really grow, and we realized we were on to something.

On the ability to engage with brands: While everything we have done to date is editorial, we realize that the field is ripe for branded content that tells great stories. Brands have started to look to us to share best practices and snackable video that can really assist our followers, and we are figuring out now how to remain true to our goals and also service a wide audience.

On the explosion of content in the space: We see some key areas that are untapped for storytelling and will really start to grow; the mental aspect of the game and the stories that elite athletes now can tell openly about overcoming their issues; the whole field of technology that can be used to help all athletes recover and improve, juxtaposed with areas like obesity and healthy living. We are even looking at areas like how esports players and Drone Racing pilots keep sharp, as we feel their stories and habits can also reach a wider, untapped audience.

On the ability to pull expert best practices from the medical community: The great thing about our platform is that we can speak to the issue of the day, like how Tiger Woods has been able to mold his career back into shape and win The Masters, to legacy stories like the best and smartest tips for Little League parents, and there are no shortage of experts in those fields who we can tap into. It’s a very exciting time, and we think that being a repository of best practices in all these areas, and some we haven’t even started to tap into, puts us in the right place at the right time.

PROGRAMMING

ESPN’s telecast of the second round of the Masters Tournament on Friday averaged 3.2 million viewers. The 3.2 million average, based on Nielsen Fast National data, was ESPN’s second-largest audience for the second round since 2013, exceeded only by the 3.9 million that watched last year. The viewership average does not include the rain delay that halted play from 5:03 – 5:34 p.m. on Friday.

ESPN and ABC averaged 1.99 million viewers for its combined 101 game NBA telecasts this season, according to Nielsen. Viewership was even with last season and up five percent from two seasons ago. In addition, the NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC series averaged 3,414,000 viewers for its eight-game slate, up one percent from 3,389,000 viewers last season and up 16 percent from 2,948,000 two seasons ago.

FOX Sports South and FOX Sports Southeast announced that former Atlanta Braves relief pitcher and 13-year MLB veteran Peter Moylan will join Braves LIVE, the networks’ flagship pre- and postgame show, for Braves telecasts. Moylan will make his Braves LIVE debut Tuesday, at 6:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports Southeast when the Braves host the Arizona Diamondbacks.

FOX Sports unveiled its broadcasters and schedule for the expanded biennial continental championship of the North, Central American, and Caribbean region. Headlined by the U.S. and Mexico men’s national teams, the tournament is shown June 15-July 7 on FOX Sports’ family of networks. The broadcast team is led by seasoned play-by-play announcer John Strong and former U.S. international Stu Holden, who called last year’s 2018 FIFA World Cup final. Joining FOX Sports for the tournament’s 15th edition are U.S. Men’s National Team legend Landon Donovan and U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Bruce Arena, who make their Gold Cup studio debuts as analysts.

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The Rockets’ Chris Paul, along with his company Oh Dipp!!! Productions, has signed an exclusive development and production partnership with MGM’s Big Fish Entertainment to create content across multiple platforms The nine-time NBA All-Star and two-time Olympic Gold Medalist will collaborate with Big Fish Entertainment President Dan Cesareo and his team to develop a wide range of projects across the spectrum of sports and entertainment, for all platforms, including unscripted, scripted, digital, premium documentaries, short-form content and more.

Adidas Basketball and Marvel unveiled a campaign for a new limited-edition “Heroes Among Us” shoe collection featuring five current and former NBA and WNBA players. Players featured include Rockets G James Harden (Iron Man), Trail Blazers G Damian Lillard (Black Panther), Wizards G John Wall (Captain America), former NBAer Tracy McGrady (Nick Fury) and L.A. Sparks F Candace Parker (Captain Marvel). The shoe line will be available at retail April 26.

Vivid Seats on Friday said that it will pay almost $60M to acquire fellow ticketing company Fanxchange. Chicago-based Vivid Seats “has already built a marketplace to buy and sell tickets and has eyed Toronto-based Fanxchange as a ticket distributor for loyalty programs, financial institutions and other businesses.” This marks the first acquisition for Vivid Seats. Vivid Seats’ deals include official ticketing partnerships with ESPN, SI and the Clippers.

DIGITAL, DATA & TECH

Tiger Woods’ Masters run took drove home Twitter buzz this weekend. There were more than 1.4 million Tweets about Tiger Woods Sunday and more than 1.8 million about The Masters.

The most Tweeted about moments of the tournament Sunday were:

Tiger Woods sinks putt on18th hole to win his 5th Masters.

Tiger Woods nearly gets hole-in-one in par 3 16th hole.

Tiger Woods birdies the par 5 15th hole to take solo lead at the Masters at -13 with three holes to play

Justin Thomas makes hole-in-one on par 3 16th hole

Francesco Molinari hits into the water on par 3 12th hole, giving Tiger Woods an opening

eSPORTS

RFRSH Entertainment announced a new season format for its global Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament brand BLAST Pro Series. The 2019 season will consist of seven tournaments (retroactively including the Sao Paulo, Brazil, event from last month) along with a Global Final in December with a $500K USD prize pool, $350K of which will be awarded to the winning team. Each other tournament in the series will award a $250K prize pool, resulting in a $2M prize pool for the season.

100 Thieves has expanded its sponsorship deal with Totino’s to cover its Fortnite team. The sponsorship includes a living and training facility named the ‘Totino’s World Cup House’ and a 10-week content series, ‘Loot’.

INDUSTRY/ROSTER MOVES

The baseball world was saddened to hear that SNY analyst Ron Darling is taking a leave of absence to deal with a serious medical issue. Darling issued the following statement Sunday: “Over the last couple of months, I have not been feeling well. A series of tests revealed a large mass on my chest which will require surgery next week to remove. The doctors have told me if there are no complications I should be back on air talking baseball sometime next month. I would personally like to thank my family, friends and media partners for all their support during this difficult time.”

THE MAIN EVENT

The Washington Capitals visit the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 3 of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at 7:00 on CNBC.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

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ON THIS DAY in 1947 Jackie Robinson becomes 1st African-American to play in MLB.

In the Know: Minnesota Duluth won this weekend’s Frozen Four. What school has won the most NCAA Division 1 hockey titles? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: Which hole at Augusta National is nicknamed “Tea Olive”? Answer: First hole or hole number one. Kudos to: David Westberg, SAG•AFTRA Federal Credit Union, Brian Robin Pechanga Resort Casino, Temecula, CA, Synda Kollman, Charter Marketing Group, Tom Moore Kalt Productions, Mike May PHIT America, Kathi Gillin, Comcast Spotlight, Andy Pittman, TAMU, College Station, TX, Joe Lyons ESPN Dallas, Paul Brewer TV Talent Agents, N. Augusta, SC, and Tim Overmyer 20th TV, Atlanta.

Later — Chris

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