Junya Ito, who scored goals in four consecutive games in the Asian qualifying rounds and contributed greatly to Japan’s qualification for the World Cup, will become a real star when the World Cup is broadcast live (photo: AFLO).According to several TV station sources, ABEMA’s broadcasting rights fee is estimated at 20 billion yen. In the past six tournaments, the ratio of NHK vs. commercial broadcasters in broadcasting rights fees for Japan has been 6:4. The remaining 15 billion yen is calculated to have been borne by NHK at 9 billion yen and TV Asahi and Fuji TV at 6 billion yen. NTV and TBS did not raise their hands to acquire the World Cup broadcasting rights this time. The 20 billion yen will be paid out of the company’s pocket. It is the largest investment ever made. Even if all Japanese TV stations had scrambled, they would not have been able to compete, but ABEMA was able to do so. Representative Fujita said, “We had planned to distribute the game in two years of development, but we postponed it for three years and invested a lot of money and people” (Bungeishunju, May issue), and the mobile game “Uma Musume Pretty Derby” (hereinafter referred to as “Uma Musume”) became an unprecedented mega-hit worldwide. According to the 2021 mobile game software sales report released by the U.S. app research firm Sensor Tower, “Uma Musume” recorded approximately $965 million (¥109.6 billion) worldwide. In fact, the game has been well received in Japan as well, with users who are still hooked on the game saying things like: I only need to do one to two hours a day to be satisfied. I’m satisfied even if I have to pay 1,500 to 3,000 yen a month! It’s a game system I’ve never played before. With this mega-hit, CyberAgent’s game business increased its sales by 68.6% over the previous year, and its profits by 3.2 times. While many companies are suffering from the Corona disaster, CyberAgent’s consolidated sales for FY2021 reached a whopping 666.4 billion yen. This is where the “Uma Musume money” was born. Free live broadcasts of the World Cup, which everyone had given up on, became feasible.