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Twitter Stakes a Claim to Massive Sports Market





Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) Has Found The Massive Sports Market


Preface
This is the seminal moment for Twitter -- the singular advantage it has in a competitive landscape otherwise dominated by Facebook and Google. Twitter finally has a home and it's rather large.

The innovation from Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) has flipped upside down, going from slower than imaginable to faster than imaginable. The narrative a month ago was disastrous. The narrative today is, well, whatever the opposite of disastrous is. And yet, today, more market moving news from Twitter hit the mainstream media and this time it's not an app, an improvement or a cool technology. Today Twitter stakes a claim to the massive sports market and it has beaten Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL).

BREAKING
Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) announced its deal with the NFL a few months ago -- it's first to carry live streaming sports. At the time, the world was still in the "doubt all things Twitter" narrative so the reaction to it was relatively muted. We later found out that not only did Twitter win the sports business with a lower bid than rivals at $10 million, but that the firm has already sold about $50 million in ads surrounding the streaming games, making the investment not only a huge traffic driver, but in fact explicitly ROI positive.

That last part made the news today somewhere between expected, obvious and genius.

Recode broke the story first, that Twitter is now speaking with the NBA, MLS (major league soccer) and Turner to acquire rights to yet more live sports streaming.

“
[Twitter] is in talks with the NBA, Major League Soccer and cable network Turner about acquiring digital streaming rights for content related to live sports and events, according to several sources familiar with the discussions.
”

Source: Recode

WHAT'S HAPPENING
When Twitter won the rights to stream the NFL games the single most critical element was feedback from the NFL. TWTR beat Facebook over the acquisition of these rights with a lower bid because the NFL felt that Facebook undervalued content rights and has a poor monetization model, according to sources close to the situation (CNBC).

That's right, Twitter was hand-picked over Facebook and the other rival bidders because of its reach. The confirming evidence to this hypothesis comes today. Quietly, Twitter appears to becoming the single and definitive home for live streaming sports. For all those that were looking for a flag in the ground moment for Twitter, this is it. This is the tangible, explicit advantage and it is massive.

Here is what Twitter CFO Anthony Noto said in April:

“
We're not just talking to the leagues, we're also talking to the broadcast partners of the leagues and the cable network partners of the leagues.
”

Source: Recode

TWTR THE WILD RIDE
Beyond the world of sports, Twitter's innovation has been massive.

From Twitter Carousel, Twitter Engage and Twitter Insiders, to Twitter's new location feeds, new video access, extended video play times, Twitter owned Periscope's rapid move toward advertising friendly tools, and of course the mothership of them all -- Twitter selling advertisements to 500 million more users that are logged out, in addition to its 310 million monthly average logged in users, the innovation in just the last month as been breathtaking.

WHY THIS MATTERS
Twitter has come to life and Jack Dorsey is pretty clearly the force behind it. At CML we identify the revolutionary thematic transformations that are coming and then the companies that will benefit most from them to find the "next Apple" or the "next Google." Twitter is one of those precious few companies. Our research sits side-by-side with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the rest on professional terminals, but we are the anti-institution. Our purpose is to break the information monopoly held by the top .1%.

Each company in our 'Top Picks' is the single winner in an exploding thematic shift like artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, drones, biotech and more. In fact, here is just one of the trends that will radically affect the future that we are ahead of:



Virtual reality is one of the fundamental shifts coming in the very near future that will change how we live, work, and play. This is a technology whose consumer base looks increasingly like all of humanity. This is the opportunity so many investors say they welcome – that say they search for. The opportunity to find the "Next Apple," or the "next Google." Friends, it's coming right now, and it lies in the depths of technology's core. It's not artificial intelligence, it's artificial super intelligence and there is one company that will rule all of it.

This just one of the themes we have identified and this is just one of the fantastic reports CML Pro members get along with all the visual tools, the precious few thematic top picks for 2016, research dossiers and alerts. For a limited time we are offering CML Pro at a 90% discount for $10/mo. with a lifetime guaranteed rate. Join Us: Get the most advanced premium research delivered to your inbox along with access to visual tools and data that until now has only been made available to the top 1%.

The author is long shares of Twitter and Apple.