Masters Recap, NBA News, & A Sports Broadcasting Update

Welcome to the latest episode of the Full-Court Finance podcast from Zacks Investment Research. On this week’s episode, we recap the money behind the Masters and dive into the most recent basketball related business news ahead of the NBA playoffs. We then close with a look at some impressive metrics regarding the current state of sports broadcasting.

The Tiger Woods boost wasn’t in full effect at the 2018 Masters since he finished tied for 32nd. But Woods played and made the cut, which helped lift ESPN’s (NYSE:DIS) early round ratings. CBS (NYSE:CBS) was also likely the beneficiary of a Sunday charge from two of golf’s biggest young names, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler.

Yet, aside from Patrick Reed—who took home the green jacket—Nike (NYSE:NKE) and his other sponsor, Ultimate Software (NYSE:T) , might have been the real winners. Meanwhile, the Masters’ official sponsors, including AT&T (NYSE:T) , IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Mercedes-Benz, got their money’s worth of ad time over the four-day tournament.

Transitioning from the first major championship of the year to the NBA, we look ahead to the playoffs after a great season of ratings for Turner’s (NYSE:TWX) TNT and ESPN. The NBA is set to debut its brand new partnership with Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) YouTube TV during the postseason.

The NBA, which is one of the more forward-looking sports leagues in the world, also recently held the first official draft for its new NBA 2K League. The NBA’s new esports league, which it started in partnership with Take-Two Interactive (NYSE:T) , is the first of its kind in major professional sports.

The new esports league also gives the NBA a chance to gain yet another source of revenue through sponsorships and streaming rights deals. Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Twitch currently looks poised to win NBA 2K League rights, though Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) was rumored to be in the running.

We then conclude this week’s episode of Full-Court Finance by looking at some of Nielsen’s latest sports television ratings.

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