Our appetite for sports and other competitive experiences isn't showing any signs of slowing down. We love to play. We love to watch people play. If you know how to invest you can also profit from the wide world of, well, sports.
DraftKings (DKNG -0.87%), fuboTV (FUBO -3.50%), and HUYA (HUYA 4.06%) are three sports stocks that are winning the market game these days. They're all posting strong double-digit growth, and the outlook is bright for all three player players. Game on!
Image source: Getty Images.
DraftKings
If you're not a fan of fantasy sports, there's a good chance you know someone willing to bet you will eventually become one. Folks love cheering on teams and players, and fantasy sports adds a new layer of enjoyment to the experience.
DraftKings is rocking. Revenue soared 42% on a pro forma basis in its latest quarter, and it's seen its players climb 64% over the past year to top a million. With its flagship fantasy sports platform and its promising online sportsbook business, DraftKings is, as they say on the baseball diamond, in the early innings of this game.
Guidance for 2021 calls for a 34% to 57% top-line surge. The headiest growth will happen in the first half of the year when the comps are easy given the lack of sporting events during the early months of the pandemic, but the increases should still impress in the back half of the year.
FuboTV
We're cutting cords, but a sports fan can't live off Ozark and The Mandalorian alone. Live TV streaming platforms are filling the void, and it's here where fuboTV is hoping to stand out against deep-pocketed rivals that are titans in tech, media, and telco.
Most streaming platforms are pretty vanilla. The hook on fuboTV's fishing line is that it's a "sports first" service with more than three dozen sports channels. It also became the first platform to offer select live events in crisp 4K. Another way fuboTV is about to stand out is trying to slip into DraftKings mode as it serves its rapidly growing audience of sports buffs.
A pair of acquisitions in the past two months finds DraftKings now able to roll out a fantasy sports platform for its 545,000 subscribers by this summer. It plans to introduce a sportsbook by the end of the year. With fuboTV users already spending an average of four hours a day on the platform it's well positioned to carve out a third lucrative revenue stream (on top of its subscriptions and healthy ad revenue).
HUYA
Let's close by turning to esports stocks. Video games have always been a booming business, but the market for fans watching some of the world's best players in action is growing even faster. If you're even a somewhat casual fan of gaming you probably know Twitch, the popular streaming platform where gamers play before a live online audience.
HUYA is the Twitch of China, and that may not exactly be doing HUYA justice. There were 172.9 million average monthly users of Huya Live by the end of the third quarter, 18% more than a year ago. Most of them are freeloaders, but HUYA cashes in through its improving ad monetization skills. Revenue growth has decelerated markedly over the past five quarters, but there's nothing wrong with a 24% top-line gain when adjusted income is growing more than three times faster.
The cherry on top here is that HUYA has agreed to merge with its closest competitor Douyu (DOYU 2.15%). The two would command a whopping 80% of the market. There are some concerns that regulators may nix the arranged marriage, but this doesn't mean that potential investors may want to wait for some clarity on that front. HUYA stock took a hit when it announced it was acquiring Douyu four months ago, and it's still trading lower as of Tuesday's close. The market may actually rally behind HUYA if the deal falls apart, but the goal here is the combined juggernaut that would command an audience of roughly 300 million gaming fans.
