Sportradar has an agreement to go public at a $10 billion valuation. Should the deal go through, it will be the biggest sports-related SPAC merger in history.
The data aggregator signed a letter of intent to merge with Horizon Acquisition Corp. II, a blank-check company led by Los Angeles Dodgers minority owner Todd Boehly. The SPAC raised $525 million in an IPO last year.
Sportradar is registered in Switzerland, and the SPAC is based in the Cayman Islands, which may allow the deal to sidestep concerns around U.S. taxation related to purchases of foreign companies.
Sportradar has spent the last two decades establishing itself as a premier provider of sports-related data. It has partnerships with the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, Nascar, FIFA, and many other leagues. In 2018, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to legalize sports betting, it was valued at $2.4 billion.
- U.S. customers provided just 6% of the company’s overall revenue in 2019.
- Sportradar positioned itself as a risk mitigator for leagues experiencing an influx of betting. Last month, it said it would offer gambling fraud detection to any league for free.
- The company markets its API as an immediate source of data from box scores to player movement tracking. Its partners include Google, Facebook, Twitter, DraftKings, FanDuel, CBS Sports, Yahoo Sports, and over 1,000 more.
Boehly’s first sports-related SPAC is still seeking a company to acquire and take public. One big winner of the deal? Canadian pensioners — the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is among Sportradar’s biggest investors.
