Can Sports Engagement Emerge as ROKU's Next Pillar for Revenue Growth?

Roku's ROKU strategic pivot toward sports content represents a calculated effort to capture higher-value audiences and drive engagement metrics that typically command premium advertising rates. The integration of YouTube TV into its Sports Experience adds marquee events like NFL Sunday Ticket alongside partners such as DAZN Live Sports, FOX One, Spectrum TV and Xfinity Stream. This positions Roku as a central hub for live programming, a category that anchors users and attracts premium sponsors.

Sports contributed meaningfully to Roku’s second-quarter 2025 results. Platform revenues increased 18% year over year to $975 million. Streaming hours advanced to 35.4 billion, up 5.2 billion from the prior year. Within The Roku Channel, MLB Sunday Leadoff boosted average reach by more than 40% across its first seven games, while sponsorships from Corona, T Mobile and Geico reflect advertiser appetite for sports inventory. Upcoming events such as the X Games Aspen 2025, a summer X Games showcase, Pro Volleyball Federation matches, and the Bassmaster Elite qualifier series are also expected to drive engagement, adding breadth to Roku’s live sports slate and reinforcing its value for advertisers.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the third quarter of 2025 platform revenue is pegged at $1.05 billion, representing 15.5% growth from the prior year. Streaming hours are pegged at 37.03 billion, up 15.8% year over year. These expectations suggest that sports integration is not just a seasonal uplift but could evolve into a recurring growth engine, supporting both engagement and top-line expansion.

Roku Faces Competition in Sports Streaming

Netflix NFLX and AMAZON AMZN are intensifying their push into live sports, directly competing with Roku’s strategy. Netflix has experimented with marquee events like the Netflix Cup and is expanding into live sports specials to diversify beyond scripted content. Amazon, through Prime Video, holds exclusive rights to NFL Thursday Night Football, making sports a key pillar of its streaming appeal. Both Netflix and Amazon aim to leverage sports to drive recurring engagement and attract premium advertisers, highlighting the competitive environment Roku must navigate as live programming becomes a broader industry growth lever.

ROKU’s Share Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates

ROKU shares have jumped 28.1% year to date, underperforming the Zacks Broadcast Radio and Television industry’s growth of 28.1% but outperforming the Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector’s return of 11.3%.

ROKU’s YTD Price Performance

From a valuation standpoint, Roku stock is currently trading at a forward 12-month Price/Sales ratio of 2.8X compared with the industry’s 4.95X. ROKU has a Value Score of D.

ROKU's Valuation

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter 2025 earnings is pegged at 7 cents per share, unchanged over the past 30 days, indicating a significant improvement over the year-ago quarter’s loss of 6 cents per share.

Roku, Inc. Price and Consensus

Roku, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Roku, Inc. Quote

Roku currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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