🐐 Grand Theft FarmVille

…and NY’s legal sports bet (sorry, Atlantic City) [Disclosures](   GTA: Farm Edition [Moment via Getty Images]   Yesterday’s Market Moves   Dow Jones 36,069 (-0.45%) S&P 500 4,670 (-0.14%) Nasdaq 14,942 (+0.05%) Bitcoin $41,620 (-0.58%) Dow Jones 36,069 (-0.45%) S&P 500 4,670 (-0.14%) Nasdaq 14,942 (+0.05%) Bitcoin $41,620 (-0.58%) Hey Snackers, Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar in 2016. Now he has his very own [tree species](. After the star’s climate activism helped save a critically endangered tree in Cameroon, scientists named it Uvariopsis dicaprio. Stocks ticked down yesterday, but the tech-heavy Nasdaq [snapped]( its four-day slump. [Bitcoin]( tumbled below $40K to its [lowest]( price since September, before rebounding slightly. US Covid hospitalizations hit a record yesterday, and [Pfizer’s]( CEO [said]( the company’s Omicron-specific vaccine would be ready by March. Farm GTA maker Take-Two says it’s buying Zynga for $12.7B, as pandemic mobile gaming booms Grand Theft FarmVille... Instead of rolling in a sleek [Zentorno]( you're cruising on a goat. [Take-Two Interactive]( [agreed]( to buy mobile-gaming icon [Zynga]( for $12.7B. Zynga makes hit apps like FarmVille, Words With Friends, and CSR Racing. Take-Two is known for computer and console franchises like GTA and NBA 2K — but has started snapping up smartphone games. - Take-Two said it would buy Zynga's shares for a 64% premium to their Friday price. Zynga shares soared 41% yesterday. Take-Two investors were less thrilled: The stock slumped 15%. - One of the gaming industry's largest acquisitions ever: The Zynga deal, expected to close by June, shows that Take-Two is serious about mobile. Billions in the palm... Wild stat: Consumers now [spend more]( on mobile games than on console and PC games combined. Zynga makes $$ through its in-game buying biz (tokens, etc.), plus its smaller ad biz (accidentally clicked mid-game). The pandemic supercharged scrolly-tappy gaming: In the first quarter of 2021, users spent a record $1.7B per week in mobile games. Also: Children’s screen time [soared]( during the pandemic, and parents and researchers are [worried]( about kids developing gaming addictions. - Zynga shares have plunged since August, when it saw audiences drop as pandemic restrictions eased (instead of WWF, you played IRL Scrabble). But last quarter, Zynga notched record third-quarter bookings and narrowed losses, while ad sales nearly doubled. - Mobile is booming: Take-Two said it expected mobile to make up more than half its bookings in the next fiscal year, up 5X. THE TAKEAWAY Mobile can “maxim-eyes”... Maximize users while minimizing costs. We’re spending more time (and money) on our phones. Mobile now accounts for over half of the $180B gaming industry, and is the fastest-growing segment. While social-media games like FarmVille can [cost]( less than $250K to make, GTA 5 cost [$265M]( to develop and market (and took three years to create). Jackpot As mobile sports betting goes live in New York, gambling companies might not be feeling so lucky Upping the ante… NY [legalized]( mobile sports betting this weekend, just in time for yesterday’s college-football championship and next week’s NFL playoffs. Before, New Yorkers had to enter New Jersey to bet on sports. Now they can gamble from their couches. Last year US gamblers spent $40B betting on sports — double from 2020. - Betting apps from [DraftKings]( FanDuel, [Caesars]( and [Rush Street]( started taking NY bets on Saturday. Five other companies are waiting for approval. - NY officials expect to generate $480M in gambling tax revenue this year, with most proceeds going to education and tax relief. What happens in Vegas… hasn’t stayed in Vegas. Since the federal sports-betting ban was lifted in 2018, 30 states and DC have legalized live sports betting, but only 18 have legalized mobile betting. NY is the largest state yet to go mobile, but NJ has the highest gambling revenue of any state, snagging one-fifth of the US’s gambling bucks. - Atlantic City = cheaper hotels: Gamblers in NJ, the second state after Nevada to legalize gambling, have wagered 63X more than NY gamblers on sports betting. - Analysts expect NY’s betting biz will surpass NJ’s in 2024. Ohio, Maryland, and Nebraska plan to launch sports betting soon. THE TAKEAWAY The house always wins… but it doesn’t necessarily win big. As gambling is legalized more widely, betting companies’ revenue is expected to 5X by 2026. But new markets don’t guarantee bigger profits: NY’s 51% tax on gambling revenue — 4X as high as NJ’s — will eat into apps’ profits as they grow. Shares of DraftKings and PointsBet have fallen more than 60% over the past year as the companies splurged to compete for customers. What else we're Snackin' - [Hike]( [Goldman Sachs]( predicts the Fed will raise interest rates four times this year, one more than previously expected. The goal: Reel in (still soaring) prices while unemployment is nearly back to normal levels. - [Jibbitz]( [Crocs’]( quarterly sales spiked an expectation-beating 42% from last year. The “ugly” shoemaker’s [Croc-star]( earnings throughout the pandemic have shown that functional is (still) the new fashionable. - [High]( [Tilray]( shares spiked 14% after the pot giant reported an unexpected quarterly profit. Sales jumped 20% from last year on demand for “beyond the leaf” products like ready-to-drink cocktails and THC lagers. - [mRNASAP]( [Pfizer]( announced deals to expand use of its mRNA tech beyond Covid vaccines, including a $1.3B agreement with gene-editing company [Beam Therapeutics]( to develop treatments for rare genetic diseases. - [Ad]( Cable titan [Discovery]( (which owns the Food Network) bought a 10% stake in OpenAP, an ad-targeting group that helps TV networks get more specific data on viewers. NBC, [Fox]( and [Viacom]( have also invested. 🍪 Thanks for Snacking with us! Want to share the Snacks? Invite your friends to sign up [here](. The Snacks Daily Podcast Airport icon Clear has bought Argentinian startup Whyline to help fight the inconvenience and germs of long lines — and not just at TSA checkpoints. [Tune in]( to hear why line-killing software is having a moment. Snack Fact Of the Day [More than 1 in 10 first-time home buyers sold crypto last quarter to fund down payments]( Tuesday - Earnings expected from: Albertsons Authors of this Snacks own: Bitcoin and shares of Zynga, Clear and Pfizer. ID: 1983804 Robinhood Snacks newsletters and podcasts reflect the opinions of only the authors who are associated persons of Robinhood Financial LLC (Member [SIPC]( and do not reflect the views of Robinhood Markets, Inc. or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. They are for informational purposes only, and are not a recommendation of an investment strategy or to buy or sell any security, digital asset (cryptocurrency, etc) in any account. They are also not research reports and are not intended to serve as the basis for any investment decision. Any third-party information provided therein does not reflect the views of Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, or any of their subsidiaries or affiliates. 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