Sports Radar has agreed with a special procurement company on a reverse merger agreement that will enable the company to go public, a source close to the negotiations said. Sports handle Monday night.
The source, who spoke to Sports handle provided anonymity, not the name of the SPAC or the terms of the agreement disclosed. While Sportradar, a sports betting provider in Switzerland, may formally announce a partnership in the coming days, an announcement is not expected on Tuesday, the source said.
The deal comes as the speculation intensified over the past week that the data provider had a large number of offers to go public, whether through a SPAC or a traditional stock exchange. Last month, Sportico reported that Sportradar discussed transactions between $ 10 billion and $ 12 billion, a significant increase in the company’s valuation during the summer to about $ 8 billion.
A Sports Radar spokesperson did not respond to a query from Sports handle Monday when a SPAC agreement was reached.
Timing of an agreement
After a transformative year for SPAC transactions in 2020, the market remained red-hot in the first quarter of the year. At the end of February, according to SPACInsider.com, 166 SPACs applied for IPOs at another 175 companies looking for a target. More than 245 SPACs were announced last year, with an average IPO size of more than $ 330 million.
At the same time, a number of prominent names in the sports world led to attempts to form SPACs with a sports bet, which sparked speculation that Sports Radar could match a top owner or star athlete.
Over the past few months, companies led by former New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, former Oakland A manager Billy Beane, and former Boston Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein have applied for SPAC deals.
Sport SPAC Arctos NorthStar also priced its IPO and raised $ 275 million. We first watched the SPAC, with Theo Epstein https://t.co/iVwPedqJUg via @sportico
#SportBiz | #SPACs | $ ANACU– Brendan Coffey (@bpcoffey) 23 February 2021
Then on February 22, Acies Acquisition II, a group led by Jim Murren, former CEO of MGM Resorts, applied for a $ 250 million SPAC. The group also includes Curtis Polk, a financial adviser to Michael Jordan. In 2015, former Chicago Bulls star Jordan took part in a $ 44 million investment round in Sports Radar, along with Mark Cuban and Ted Leonsis, CEO of Monumental Sports Entertainment.
Other names that have emerged as possibilities to merge with Sports Radar include SPACs formed by Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley, and others formed by Chamath Palihapitiya, a minority owner of the Golden State Warriors.
Sports Radar does not necessarily look for a SPAC with the most capital, but one that can provide added value to help the company deepen its relationship with professional sports leagues and sports book operators, sources say. Sports Radar is also interested in expanding its relationship with media entities, another priority of the company.
Sports Radar is looking for a very public debut
While Sports Radar has partnered with all four of the major professional sports leagues in North America during the 2020 sports calendar, the agreement with the NFL that gave the company exclusive rights to distribute official league information to U.S. sports books will expire, The Athletics report. Sports Radar’s move to public markets could contribute to negotiations with the NFL over a new gambling data partnership.
Get behind the scenes of our latest virtual Nasdaq Opening Bell: how @DraftKings utilize the public markets https://t.co/41aTjtZFZ0 #SPAC pic.twitter.com/uyGlRHHVfD
– Nasdaq (@Nasdaq) 27 April 2020
Sports Radar also thinks deeply of the listing as a public event, similar to DraftKings’ public debut last spring, according to a source. During the height of the pandemic, DraftKings CEO Jason Robins took part in a virtual chime last April to mark the company’s first trading day on the NASDAQ Global Select Market.
“They are not hoping for a fundamental valuation, but they are hoping for a DraftKings valuation … one that has an impact on what kind of rating level investors place on it,” the source said.
Sportradar’s decision to disclose a SPAC route is a change in the strategy of previous years when CEO Carsten Koerl preferred the traditional stock market path, another source said.
This is an evolving story, more updates are coming.