CMA Approves Sportradar’s Acquisition of IMG Arena

Sportradar’s acquisition of fellow betting data supplier IMG Arena has been cleared by the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK, following a regulatory review.

While the CMA is yet to publish the full text of the decision, it has completed a consultation process that began in July, when the CMA invited interested parties to comment on the deal. An official inquiry commenced on September 1, as the CMA contemplated whether the deal could lead to a substantial lessening of competition in any UK markets. The deal is now able to pass without conditions and is set to complete in the fourth quarter of this year.

In March, Sportradar announced it was to acquire IMG Arena and its global sports betting rights portfolio from entertainment conglomerate Endeavor. However, unlike with most acquisitions, Sportradar will be paid up to $225 million to take IMG Arena; $125 million of this total covers IMG Arena as a business, and the remaining potential $100 million covers IMG Arena’s rights commitments.

What’s in the deal?

The portfolio being taken by Sportradar includes strategic relationships with more than 70 rightsholders, which covers approximately 39,000 official data events and 30,000 streaming events.

Basketball, football and tennis, which are the three most bet on sports across the globe,  account for about 70% of the rights included as part of the agreement. Specific properties within the deal include grand slam tennis events Wimbledon, the US Open and the French Open, as well as Major League Soccer, EuroLeague basketball and golf’s PGA Tour.

Does the acquisition make Sportradar dominant?

The deal was announced at the same time as Sportradar’s financial results for 2024. Sportradar generated revenue of $1.11 billion last year; a total which was up 26% from 2023. By comparison, Genius Sports, one of Sportradar’s closest competitors, posted revenue of $511 million for 2024, up 24%.

After the IMG Arena acquisition was announced, analysts Regulus Partners said in a note: “Sportradar’s dominance is illustrated by comparison to its nearest competitor. Sportradar is now c. 2.3x bigger than Genius Sports in terms of revenue, 2.7x bigger in terms of EBITDA, it generates strong free cash flow after rights costs, and it has 15x the value of cash on the balance sheet (excluding credit headroom).

“While Genius can compete on tier one content (most notably UK soccer and NFL), the gap is significant in terms of bidding flexibility.”

The lead-up to the deal

The agreement followed a management buyout of IMG Arena and OpenBet from Endeavor in November 2024 by OB Global Holdings, worth $450 million. When that deal was announced, Endeavor said it would continue to market IMG Arena for sale to a third-party purchaser.

Endeavor has been keen to offload IMG Arena as a necessary step to facilitate its privatisation deal with investment firm Silver Lake, which completed its $25 billion purchase of Endeavor in March. This led to Endeavor being rebranded as WME Group.

Regulus Partners said: “The latest deal means that Endeavour is paying Sportradar to take on the cost of rights (and probably redundancies) rather than recognising any value in what was created – with Sportradar being paid US$125m in cash while rightsholders get up to US$100m in prepayments to further de-risk the deal, costing Endeavor up to $225m to dispose of its colossal strategic failure.”