Why Canal+ And MultiChoice Are Likely To Retain SuperSportBET?

Canal+ has been vocal with the media on MultiChoice's decision to diversify outside of pay-tv which they don't deem a necessity. These include NMIS Insurance Services (Insurance), Moment (finance), Namola (emergency services) and SuperSportBET (gambling).

MultiChoice initially being insolvent had to scale back on these endeavours with Sanlam that acquired a 60% stake in NMIS Insurance Services. Then there was the end of SuperSport United which MultiChoice acquired in 1994 as Pretoria City.

With the deal almost near completion as it awaits final approval from the Competition Tribunal and ICASA. There has been questions about what may become of SuperSportBET as it too is deemed a non core asset.

SuperSportBET which forms part of a joint venture between MultiChoice and Kingmakers had launched in 2021 and still operates at a loss if you were to compare it with existing competitors such as Betway and HollywoodBet.

But then again, it's something Canal+ might retain as they had initially planned to launch betting service in Europe by the 2010s in conjunction with Ladbrokes. Maybe this MultiChoice transaction is what could persuade them to revisit this venture and getting to SuperSport United.

It was a physical fan club which had several expenses tied to it being player's salaries, facilities and management all of which yielded very little income. SuperSportBET being a digital entity has less expenses and with betting seeing a surge in consumption it's likely to become profitable.

Betting had been viewed as a popular marketing tool for sports compared to a fan club which relies on physical media which had been in decline.