Despite the economic downturn due to the pandemic, a reduced interest by younger generations in watching live sports, and a rise in illegal streaming services, M Plus Sports Media Company Limited, the sole local media company offering live streaming of professional sports events, tells Macau News Agency it is making agreements with more sports leagues in the region and is even considering entering the e-sports market segment.
Founded in 2017, M Plus offers live streaming of sports events, broadcasting and business promotion to local clients and entities, with exclusive rights to sell broadcasting for known football and basketball leagues, including the Premier League (England), Serie A (Italy), Ligue 1 (France), Primeira Liga (Portugal), the Asian Football Confederation Cup and the NBA.
“We purchase the licenses from these soccer or basketball leagues and sell them to local buyers or entities. We are also working with local broadcaster Macau Cable TV […]. We mainly deal with football and basketball, the two most popular sports worldwide,” the company’s head of business development, Alan Yung, told MNA.
Sports betting gaming concessionaire Macau SLOT Co. Ltd., which holds the exclusive concession in the city for betting on football and basketball, is also a partner of M Plus. The group’s current concession contract was renewed in 2016 until June 2021.
The sports betting market was valued at US$85 billion in 2019, with the Asia Pacific region believed to be responsible for 47 percent of the world’s sports wagers.
In 2020, the revenue coming from betting on football and basketball in Macau dropped by 27 percent year-on-year to some MOP$543 million (US$67.8 million) – the lowest amount in the last five years, something that can be attributed to the disruption caused by the pandemic worldwide on the scheduling of sports events.
“Last year saw many sport fixtures being changed, which obviously hurt [the betting market]. Most matches between March and April 2020 were cancelled or suspended. The French 2019-20 Ligue 1 season was abandoned,” Yung noted.
Regardless of the viewers’ interest in sports betting, Yung notes that passion for the sport is still one of the main drivers of the business, with M Plus offering monthly, annual or stand-alone packages for the different leagues or singles matches.
Yung points out that the broadcasting rights business has grown since M Plus was first founded but remains a small market in the Macau SAR when compared to other Asian markets including Hong Kong, a city with 12 times its population and a passionate English Premier League fan base.
However, pandemic aside, Yung notes that newer generations seem to actually be less interested in watching full-time sports live.
“In Europe, live attendance at football matches or other sports is actually diminishing because there are so many other entertainment offers on hand. The young generation is all over online games,” Yung added.
“A day only has 24 hours, so you either spend 90 minutes at a live match or 90 minutes on a game. Some people just want to watch the highlights. Also, most European games will be broadcast in Asia at midnight or later. That’s why our K-League (South Korea) or J-League (Japan) offers are actually doing better,” he points out.
Still, the company is planning to expand its offers with more live streams from different leagues, and possibly different sports.
“We want to expand to other markets. We just acquired the rights to the Australian basketball league for Macau and Hong Kong until 2023. As for different sports, we still need to do some more groundwork. We’re actually in discussions with some e-sports companies. It’s the trend,” he added.
When asked if the company would be interested in commissioning local football matches, the M Plus business development head notes that finding the market for them would be challenging, considering that even local residents seem to be unaware of the local sports scene.
“If you asked someone on the street to name some first division teams, they probably wouldn’t be able to tell you one. We have some local teams connected to large Portuguese teams [Sporting de Macau, Benfica de Macau or FC Porto de Macau] but the problem is the audience,” he adds.
As for the Chinese football league, most residents will “either just use VPNs or watch it via the TDM TV broadcast”.
Illegal broadcasting services or free illegal online streaming channels are also impacting business margins.
“I once saw a restaurant with a TV broadcasting European football matches via some illegal Malaysian channel,’ Yung added.
