{"id":769,"date":"2025-03-19T19:01:03","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T20:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/?p=769"},"modified":"2025-09-22T12:10:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T12:10:11","slug":"sportradar-paying-nothing-to-acquire-img-arena-betting-assets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/19\/sportradar-paying-nothing-to-acquire-img-arena-betting-assets\/","title":{"rendered":"Sportradar Paying Nothing to Acquire IMG Arena Betting Assets"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Deal bolsters data provider&#8217;s basketball, soccer, tennis exposure<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Buyer says acquisition will lift earnings, revenue<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Sportradar (NASDAQ: SRAD) said Wednesday it&#8217;s acquiring IMG Arena and its sports wagering assets from Endeavor Group Holdings at essentially no cost to the buyer.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_344123\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-344123\" data-style=\"width: 430px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-344123 size-post-thumbnail-430xAUTO lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"Sportradar Stock\" width=\"430\" height=\"231\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/SRAD-430x231-1.jpg\"><figcaption>The Sportradar and MLB logos. The company is acquiring IMG Arena at no cost. (Image: Sportradar)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Under the terms of the deal, Sportradar lands a consideration of $125 million with Endeavor pledging $100 million in cash prepayments \u201cto certain of the sports rightsholders.\u201d The transaction, which Sportradar announced in conjunction with its fourth-quarter results, is slated to close in the fourth quarter of this year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Switzerland-based buyer said the purchase will boost revenue while being accretive to cash flow and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). It also bolsters Sportradar\u2019s footprint in several sports to which it already has exposure.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Basketball, soccer, and tennis account for approximately 70% of the rights which are the top three most bet on global sports, complementing our existing sports portfolio,\u201d said the buyer in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>With the deal, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportradar-stock-has-more-upside-ahead-says-analyst\/\">Sportradar adds<\/a> 70 rightsholders with coverage of 39K data and 30K streaming events across 14 sports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cProminent global properties include Wimbledon, U.S. Open, Roland-Garros, Major League Soccer, EuroLeague basketball and PGA Tour. Combined with existing tennis rights, Sportradar will now hold betting rights to three of the four Grand Slams,\u201d said the buyer.<\/p>\n<h2>Sportradar Buy Ends Speculation About IMG Arena\u2019s Fate<\/h2>\n<p>IMG Arena\u2019s future has been the source of industry speculation after Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, OpenBet CEO Jordan Levin, and others paid $450 million to buy OpenBet from Endeavor as part of the UFC parent\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ufc-parent-endeavor-going-private-in-13b-deal-with-silver-lake\/\">go-private transaction<\/a> with venture capital firm Silver Lake. That acquisition made clear between IMG Arena and OpenBet, the latter was the more desirable asset.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>Following that transaction, it was widely known that IMG Arena was on the auction block, but some experts noted that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/openbet-could-sell-at-steep-discount-says-research-firm\/\">it was unlikely Sportradar<\/a> and rival Genius Sports (NYSE: GENI) &#8212; the dominant names in the sports betting data business &#8212; would step forward with offers for the former Endeavor unit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sportradar never publicly said it wasn\u2019t interested in IMG Arena, and it\u2019s possible that the addition of earnings-boosting data rights at basically no cost was too good of a deal for the buyer to pass up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe unique structure of this transaction will further strengthen Sportradar\u2019s already robust balance sheet and enhance its significant liquidity position, allowing for continued strategic investments and opportunities for incremental shareholder returns, including an anticipated acceleration on the pace of its existing buyback program,\u201d said the buyer in a statement.<\/p>\n<h2>Could OpenBet Transaction Soon Follow?<\/h2>\n<p>Sportradar\u2019s acquisition of IMG Arena could stoke speculation that a deal for OpenBet is imminent, but the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/endeavor-looking-for-buyers-for-sports-betting-businesses\/\">list of prospective suitors<\/a> for OpenBet isn\u2019t long, and there\u2019s been no recent chatter to that effect.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>Sportradar investors apparently liked the news and the data provider\u2019s fourth-quarter results because the shares are up nearly 13% on more than triple the average daily volume in late trading.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In 2024, the company\u2019s EBITDA and revenue surged 33% and 26%, respectively. Its cash-on-hand tally jumped to $380.26 million from $314.7 million at the end of 2023.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportradar-paying-nothing-to-acquire-img-arena-betting-assets\/\">Sportradar Paying Nothing to Acquire IMG Arena Betting Assets<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\">Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Deal bolsters data provider&#8217;s basketball, soccer, tennis exposure Buyer says acquisition will lift earnings, revenue Sportradar (NASDAQ: SRAD) said Wednesday it&#8217;s acquiring IMG Arena and its sports wagering assets from Endeavor Group Holdings at essentially no cost to the buyer. The Sportradar and MLB logos. The company is acquiring IMG Arena at no cost. (Image: Sportradar) Under the terms of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":772,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769\/revisions\/772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}