If you haven’t heard of B2Digital Inc (OTCMKTS:BTDG), we won’t blame you. The stock trades for pennies on the OTC. But it’s also perhaps the fastest growing live sports media company in the fastest growing live sports market: mixed martial arts.
This weekend, the company will be putting on one of its biggest live MMA pay-per-view events in company history: StrikeHard 56, featuring a combination of top professional and amateur bouts pitting some of the best up and coming new prospects in the sport going head to head in a series of highly anticipated hard-hitting bouts.
But there’s something that really distinguishes this event from any other in the company’s history: this time, it will be accessible to the 40 million Americans on Amazon Fire TV. Anyone interested can find it here: B2Digital B2 Fighting Series Amazon Fire TV.
As noted in the company’s release earlier this week, over 40 million viewers consume content through Amazon Fire TV as of January 2020, which represents over 18% growth on a year-over-year basis, and a sizeable lead of nearly 8 million viewers over Roku, according to TechCrunch. Overall, analysts calculate the OTT live sports market to be worth an estimated $6.8 billion annually.
In other words, this is a very big step for B2Digital Inc (OTCMKTS:BTDG) in its upward climb toward household brand status in the sports media space: the company’s biggest event reaching its widest ever accessible audience, and it all happens tomorrow, Saturday, October 10, live from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, with the action kicking off at 8 PM ET.
Interested fans who don’t have an Amazon Fire TV Stick can also watch it over streaming PPV, with tickets sold at B2mma.com.
Get it Out the Door
One of the most interesting aspects of this event for B2Digital Inc (OTCMKTS:BTDG) is how quickly the company got its Amazon Fire TV app launched. That represents an amazing feat of execution on the development side.
BTDG only announced it was ramping up an over-the-top (OTT) distribution strategy last month, and it was noted at the time that the first app might possibly be live sometime this fall. That seemed like good news at the time because it meant the company would be able to benefit from having that exposure for most of its remaining fall 2020 events.
However, instead of November, here we are in early October, and the company’s action-packed content is already set to blast out on Amazon Fire TV.
The idea that B2 would have OTT exposure by the time the bell rang for SHP56 seemed far fetched a couple weeks ago. So, this is very good news that may have material implications for its Q4 data.
“We worked extremely fast to get this developed, launched, and available in the Amazon Fire TV store because we believe that OTT TV distribution of our proprietary action-packed live content is a game changer in the market for fans of MMA,” commented Greg P. Bell, Chairman & CEO of B2Digital. “Now, the remaining B2 Fighting Series fights of 2020 will be Live on PPV on Amazon Fire TV with our top-tier amateur and professional Live MMA events. Our major title bouts and rising stars of MMA that our hardcore fans love to watch can now be viewed on Amazon Fire TV. We will also expect to have exciting news very soon on delivering the B2 Fighting Series over Apple TV.”
Just Getting Started
The release also noted that the B2 Fighting Series App for Amazon Fire TV was developed in conjunction with PrestoSports, which is “also assisting in the development of other versions of the app targeting additional OTT platforms”.
Hint, hint. That seems like a teaser for some big announcements on the way.
We would also anticipate that the launch of the Amazon Fire TV app in time for this weekend’s big event will have a cumulative impact on numbers for each additional event ahead given BTDG’s unique model for managing its OTT customer relationships.
According to the release, B2Digital is pursuing a unique monetization model for its OTT app product, with free download using an email address, no monthly subscription, and free access to all content other than LIVE PPV event content, which will be available for a PPV charge, and then made free 36 hours after the conclusion of the event.
Bell added, “We are moving toward some of our biggest and most exciting events ever, our B2InstaStore PPV marketing model is beginning to have a material impact as a viral sales engine, and now, with the launch of our Amazon Fire TV OTT presence, we have massively widened our distribution footprint. If you add in the fact that there seems to be a pent-up demand dynamic in play right now in the live sports market as a pandemic effect, the result is a perfect storm that should be very exciting for B2Digital shareholders over coming months.”
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