Wynn Resorts is taking its sports and online betting wing, Wynn Interactive, public in a SPAC merger with Austerlitz Acquisition Corporation I, adding $640 million in new cash.

The casino and online gambling operator will retain 58% ownership and 70% voting rights of the company, which is valued at $3.2 billion.

WynnBet has gained a foothold in the increasingly crowded U.S. market by partnering with NASCAR, the Memphis Grizzlies, and the Detroit Pistons. Wynn estimates that the overall North American sports betting and iGaming market will eventually be worth $45 billion.

Though SPAC mergers have slowed from their torrid pace earlier in the year, they’re still a popular vehicle for sports betting companies to go public.

• In April 2020, DraftKings brought in $300 million by merging with a blank-check company at a valuation north of $3 billion.
• Golden Nugget Gaming, owned by Houston Rockets’ owner Tilman Fertitta, went public in a SPAC deal in February, valuing the company at $6.6 billion. 
• Rush Street Interactive raised $230 million in a December SPAC merger that valued it at $1.5 billion.

Wynn Interactive offers casino and sports betting options to mobile consumers through its WynnBET, BetBull, and WynnSLOTS brands.

WynnBet has live operations in six states, but Wynn Interactive has market access in 15, reaching about 51% of the U.S. population.

Alex Rodriguez and business partner Marc Lore signed a letter of intent on April 10 to buy the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx in a deal worth around $1.5 billion.

It’s now a month later, the pair has yet to reach an agreement with owner Glen Taylor, and the expiration date for their 30-day exclusive negotiating window has passed. 

Taylor bought the team in 1994 for $88 million and has been in discussions with potential buyers since last July, including former Memphis Grizzlies minority owner Daniel Straus. Taylor has opened exclusive negotiating windows with several groups over the past decade.

While the A-Rod deal is sliding, it’s not completely off the table yet. Rodriguez and Lore still have the ability to come to an exclusive extension agreement and are “continuing to negotiate in good faith,” per ESPN.

Others who have reportedly shown serious interest in buying the team include: 

• Kevin Garnett, the franchise’s all-time leading scorer
• Zygi and Mark Wilf, owners of the Minnesota Vikings

The proposed deal would make Rodriguez’s group full owners of the Timberwolves and Lynx by the 2023-24 season. A-Rod and Lore would become limited partners and buy pieces of the team in phases until then.

Taylor says part of any deal would include keeping the Timberwolves in Minneapolis, where the team has a lease at the Target Center through 2035. The 80-year-old is worth $2.9 billion and also has a stake in the United FC soccer team.

In April, three-time NBA champion Dwyane Wade joined the ownership group of the Utah Jazz.

Sportradar is at it again, adding to an already eclectic business portfolio.

The sports data aggregator agreed to acquire InteractSport — an Australian sports data company with expertise in cricket.

The deal establishes a footprint in cricket — which has more than 2 billion fans globally — and comes on the heels of Sportradar losing exclusive NFL data rights to Genius Sports in April.

Acquiring InteractSport is the latest in a series of moves for Sportradar in 2021: 

• January: Finalized an eight-year data and media rights deal with the Asian Football Confederation.
• February: Announced a plan to launch an OTT platform with the Korea Professional Football League. 
• March: Struck a deal to go public at a $10 billion valuation via a merger with a SPAC led by Los Angeles Dodgers minority owner Todd Boehly.
• March: Agreed to acquire Synergy Sports, the leading U.S. college sports data and video analytics provider.

Cricket’s most popular professional league, the Indian Premier League, was valued at $6.78 billion in 2019 before dipping to $6.19 billion in 2020. The decline, spurred by the pandemic, was the league’s first drop in value since 2014. 

The IPL expects to rebound with increased viewership on platforms like Disney+ Hotstar and investments from companies like Sportradar.