The Inaugural Netflix Cup: What is it?
Hello World,
If there weren't already a million eyes on Las Vegas as we inch closer to lights out on Saturday, Netflix needed to get its share of publicity. On Tuesday, the Inaugural Netflix Cup was played for at the Wynn Golf Club and was the first-ever live-stream sporting event on Netflix. This Cup combined stars from Netflix's Drive to Survive and Full Swing to bring a healthy level of chaos to the course.
But let's take a step back and understand how we got here. For many years Netflix has been trying to break into the sports television market. They initially did this when they created the docuseries Drive to Survive based on Formula One and have since created similar shows about tennis and golf. All of these shows have been incredibly successful and have helped Netflix expand in the sports market.
Naturally, the next thing worth trying is live sports, and for years, Netflix has been bidding for rights to stream sports with no success. So yesterday, they took that step themselves, where they created four teams of one golfer and one driver to compete in this tournament.
The tournament had some interesting rules that were unclear to viewers and had a lot of emphasis on marketing Netflix shows. The fans also gave it a mixed review as many appreciated the unhinged crazy nature of it, while others were just confused.
The trophy was won by Justin Thomas and Carlos Sainz, but it wouldn't be a proper ceremony without the trophy being... broken. With all that being said, I'd say it was a relatively successful first dip into live sports for Netflix, and I am excited to see where this takes them and if this will become a yearly occurrence. Now, all eyes turn to the Vegas Strip as we are only a few days away from Formula One's Inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix.