The New York Cosmos was a soccer team based in New York, United States. His place of origin was aiming high. In addition, it was founded in 1971 by two Atlantic Records record executives, Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegün, and for most of its history it has been managed by Steve Ross, president of Warner Communications. So it is that the business gaze was in a permanent link with business. During the 1970s, it stood out as one of the most ambitious clubs in North America, coinciding with the professionalization of this sport in the United States through the North American Soccer League (NASL). Ross managed to attract great footballers back then. That decision had a great impact, both for the country and for the sport. The most important signature of the Cosmos was in 1975, when Pelé landed in “The Big Apple”.
When the rumor that Lio Messi would join Inter Miami, there were some who drew that parallel in history with Pelé and the Cosmos, but as the days went by the impact of the news was exceeded until it reached the infinity of expectations. From a sporting point of view, the difference is that while Pelé arrived in the United States to finish his career, Messi in 2022 was world champion with Argentina and a few months later he won his seventh Ballon d’Or as the best player in the world. But from the commercial point of view, the popularity of “Lio” enjoys two engines that make it an incomparable fact, both for soccer and for the showcase of universal fame: globalization and social networks.
THE IMPACT WAS IMMEDIATE
The sports market in the United States has its greatest strength in American football, baseball and basketball. With Messi, the expectation of soccer is to reach that level. “The future of soccer in America is so bright,” Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham said in an Adidas news conference on the eve of Lionel Messi’s debut with the MLS club. “I’ve seen the growth of it over the last 10, 15 years… Bringing someone like [Messi] not just to Inter Miami, but to MLS, to America, it means so much. You have the eyes of not just Latin America, but the world on Miami”, concluded the British with dreams in mind. And he wasn’t exaggerating…
The effects were before the ball started rolling. When the news broke that soccer’s all-time greatest talent would be taking his talents to South Beach, Inter Miami’s global popularity, as far as Google searches go, increased by more than 1,200%. “When Lionel Messi announced his move to Inter Miami,” said Gene Cook, vice president of global collectibles at eBay, “searches for his collectibles — spanning trading cards and memorabilia — increased over 75% the following day on eBay … globally.” Messi’s Inter Miami kit was Fanatics’ top seller across all sports in July.
But the increase was not only in products. As a digital media group specialising in that region, Futbol Sites has driven significant traffic to Apple TV’s coverage of the MLS, which has led to Apple’s subscriptions increasing by 730% compared to 2023’s monthly average prior to Messi joining Inter Miami. Additionally, Futbol Sites’ US brand, World Soccer Talk, has seen a 48% increase in web traffic during the last month. Singlehandedly, Messi has been responsible for Apple TV’s MLS Pass subscriber base increasing by 43% overall.
Inter Miami won all of its Leagues Cup matches, but it wasn’t the only winner. Apple announced record viewership for three games the week of Messi’s debut, indicating an increased engagement with the sport. Social media numbers are soaring, with Messi’s debut last-minute free-kick winner against Cruz Azul drawing hundreds of millions of views. Subscriptions to Apple’s MLS Season Pass have more than doubled. Inter Miami’s Instagram account now has over 14 million followers, more than any team in the NFL, MLB, or NHL.
The North American market was the main beneficiary, although not the only one. Per a statement from Apple spokesperson Tom Neumayr, the MLS (and their broadcasting partners over at Apple TV) enjoyed “the 3 most watched matches ever on MLS Season Pass, with viewers in almost 100 countries and regions around the world. And the fans for those matches were roughly split between the MLS Season Pass English and Spanish language broadcasts.” In 7 Leagues Cup games, Messi scored 10 goals, his first goal against Cruz Azul was seen by over 50 million viewers on Twitter in just 24 hours.
In terms of tickets sold, Messi’s influence at Inter Miami also made the rest of the teams take off. For example, the Chicago Fire team played 17 home games this season. In the previous 16, total ticket sales billing was $10 million. Against Messi and Inter Miami, the balance amounted to $7 million.
MESSI IS ALSO A FACTOR IN THE BETS
Inter Miami was a sportingly below-average team before Messi’s arrival. Inter Miami had +15000 odds to win the MLS Cup prior to the reported signing. The club is in last place in the Eastern Conference and is six points out of a playoff position.
Amidst Messi’s success, BetMGM Sportsbook has also taken note (Inter Miami has odds as high as +1200 to win it all this season, more than ten times as good as they were before Messi joined the fold) and is offering the best BetMGM bonus codes, giving fans the chance to place bets on Inter Miami’s matches and Messi’s goal-scoring prowess.
Nonetheless, 90.2% of the betting tickets and 94.8% of the money that came into the MLS futures market following the Messi news was on Inter Miami at BetMGM. Around the horn, the line movement at BetMGM Sportsbook for Miami as league winner, including playoffs, has showed the Messi effect: 34.00 before Messi’s first game, 26.00 before his second game, 13.00 before his third game, and 8.00 after his sixth game. Highest ticket percentage is Inter Miami at 37.9 per cent, highest handle is Miami 50.8 per cent.
The MLS revolution in sports betting in the United States and in the world generated a responsible gaming campaign with the main firms in the industry. The deals are aimed at giving the Major League Soccer Players Association access to gambling harm education and awareness programs, which will work to provide its members with information about the dangers of problem gambling.
The agreement not only includes the general population, but also the players. The partnership is valid for the next three years and is targeted at avoiding situations such as the one Brentford and England striker Ivan Toney found himself in last season, when he confessed to being addicted to gambling and was investigated by the FA. Toney was later banned for eight months for 232 breaches of gambling regulations and won’t play for Brentford again until January 2024.
THE SPORTS BETTING DEBATE IN FLORIDA
In May of 2021, the State of Florida and the Seminole Tribe agreed to a 30-year compact that allowed for statewide mobile sports betting via the Seminole Tribe’s Hard Rock betting app as part of a $500 million per year payment to the state. The gaming compact was negotiated between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the tribe and approved by the Florida Legislature. The Seminole Tribe-owned Hard Rock casinos in Florida launched their online sports betting app shortly after the deal was codified, but it was forced to shut down about a month later.
Since then, the future of Florida sports betting remains tied up in the federal court system following an appeal. West Flagler Associates, the former owners of the Miami Magic City casino and the plaintiffs in case that overturned the 2021 betting compact between the state and the Seminole Tribe, filed to have the case heard en banc by an appellate court.
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia’s three-judge panel directed a lower court to enter a judgment in favor of the U.S. Secretary of the Interior in June. That decision overturned a ruling by a federal judge who threw out the 2021 gaming compact between the state and the Seminole Tribe. In its appeal, West Flagler argued that the appeals court departed from previous case and is “erroneous and will create confusion.”
Florida will be the largest state in the country with legal sports betting if/when it returns. More than 21.78 million people live in Florida. That is nearly 2 million more than in New York. Florida’s largest state budget ever – $116.1 billion – took effect July 1. And not a single penny of that record spending spree came from Florida sports betting revenue. Sports bettors in Florida enjoyed 34 days of state-wide betting in 2021 when the Hard Rock Sportsbook app was up and running across the Sunshine State.
