Latest news with #IMGArena
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Meet the Unstoppable Growth Stock That Got Paid $225 Million to Buy Another Company
If you've watched any sports in the last few years, you have undoubtedly seen the relentless advertising from various sportsbooks offering an array of sign-up deals. With numerous research firms expecting the global sports betting market to grow at a double-digit rate annually through 2030 and beyond, this high spending on ads makes perfect sense. However, it is expensive for these sportsbooks to not only place these ads but also "give away" free money up front to encourage bettors to join their platform instead of another. Long story short, it is a fiercely competitive space, and profit margins are thin (if there are any at all). Rather than trying to divine who will be the long-term winner among these sportsbooks -- and hoping they mature into profitable enterprises with time -- there may be a more straightforward way to gain exposure to the sports betting industry. Meet Sportradar (NASDAQ: SRAD). Its technology platform provides mission-critical data and betting services to sportsbooks while also acting as a go-between for sports leagues looking to get their content out to media partners. Through these offerings, Sportsradar acts as a pick-and-shovel play to the broader sports betting industry, making it a potentially less risky proposition than the sportsbooks themselves. Best yet for investors? Sportradar just received $225 million to acquire a sports betting company. Yes, you read that right. Here's why the deal happened and how it makes Sportradar an unstoppable-looking growth stock to buy today. Connected to more than 800 betting operators, 900 media companies, and 400 sports leagues, teams, and federations, Sportradar is the leading sports data and content solutions platform globally. Enabling betting across 85 types of sports, the company covered over 1 million matches and processed 87 billion bets in 2024. Whether providing live odds and data for sportsbooks, analytics and audiovisual for broadcasters, or deeper fan engagement and integrity services for sports leagues, Sportradar is the engine that powers global sports betting. Boasting sports rights deals with the vast majority of sports leagues (outside of the NFL, due to its exorbitant price tag), the company added to its content library by acquiring data platform IMG Arena from Endeavor. However, this wasn't your average acquisition. Rather than paying to pick up IMG Arena, Sportradar received $125 million in cash and $100 million in pre-payments to IMG's partners for their sports rights. The reason for this fire sale stems from IMG Arena's parent company, Endeavor, recently being acquired by private equity firm Silver Lake. Primarily focused on technology investing, Silver Lake wasn't interested in IMG Arena's sports content and wanted to buy a "streamlined" version of Endeavor, which is also the majority owner of TKO Group Holdings. The sale of IMG could also be an admission from Endeavor that it spent way too much on these sports rights, and this is the simplest way to offload them as it integrates into Silver Lake. However, as the saying goes, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." And that sure seems to be the case for Endeavor and Sportradar. While Endeavor may not have had the scale to effectively monetize IMG Arena's sports rights -- which include the PGA Tour, the UFC, MLS, three tennis majors, and 30,000 streaming events -- Sportradar does. Leveraging its existing relationships, the company can now offer these events to both its betting and media partners, adding even more value to their partnership. Management believes the deal would immediately be accretive to Sportradar's adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) margins if the deal closes in the fourth quarter of 2025 as expected. Currently guiding for revenue growth of 15% in 2025, management said closing the IMG Arena deal would boost this outlook closer to the upper 20% range. Boosting adjusted EBITDA, nearly doubling revenue growth, and beefing up its sports content library -- all while receiving $225 million -- this deal seems like a winning bet for investors. As Sportradar continues to scale and generate more revenue per client, its profitability and cash generation steadily improved. With the company's top 200 clients maintaining an excellent net revenue retention rate of 127%, it is clear that once customers are in Sportradar's ecosystem, they find value in buying additional services. In addition to these figures, Sportradar's cash return on invested capital (ROIC) has also been rising lately. This rising cash ROIC is critical for Sportradar and potential investors as it shows management's ability to buy new sports rights at a fair price and effectively monetize them. Since this cash ROIC shows the company is able to generate outsized cash flows from its debt and equity, it could be a promising sign of things to come with the IMG Arena acquisition. While Sportradar doesn't look "classically cheap" with a price-to-free-cash-flow (P/FCF) ratio of 52, its leadership advantage, growth potential, and improving margins could help it quickly outgrow this valuation. Before you buy stock in Sportradar Group Ag, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Sportradar Group Ag wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $461,558!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $578,035!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 730% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 147% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of April 5, 2025 Josh Kohn-Lindquist has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Sportradar Group Ag. The Motley Fool recommends TKO Group Holdings. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Meet the Unstoppable Growth Stock That Got Paid $225 Million to Buy Another Company was originally published by The Motley Fool
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why Sportradar Stock Rocketed Higher This Week
Shares of sports data and technology provider Sportradar (NASDAQ: SRAD) were up 10% this week as of 2:15 p.m. ET on Thursday, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Sportradar reported fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday, wherein revenue and cash from operations grew by 26% and 36% in 2024. However, management also announced a unique acquisition that seemed to steal the show, and the market reacted optimistically. Sportradar is a pick-and-shovel provider of sorts to the massive sports betting industry. Primarily, the company serves sportsbooks with real-time data, odds, stats, and audiovisual overlays, enabling frictionless betting. Partnered with over 400 sports leagues, 800 betting operators, and 900 media companies, Sportradar covers 1 million matches annually across 70 different sports. The company's leading presence in sports betting should only continue to grow following its recent announcement of Sportradar's unique acquisition of IMG Arena from Endeavor. Not only will Sportradar obtain IMG Arena's portfolio of global sports betting rights, but it will also receive $225 million to acquire these assets. With Endeavor soon to be taken private by Silver Lake -- and the latter primarily wanting the company's talent agency and live events businesses, not its sports betting technology unit -- it was willing to pay Sportradar to part with IMG Arena. IMG Arena's sports rights portfolio includes events such as three tennis majors and leagues such as the PGA Tour, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and Major League Soccer. These rights deepen Sportradar's existing sports portfolio, and management believes the deal will immediately increase the company's revenue and cash generation. Guiding for at least 15% sales growth with improving free cash flow margins in 2025 (without including IMG Arena's benefit), Sportradar deserves to be on investors' radars. Before you buy stock in Sportradar Group Ag, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Sportradar Group Ag wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $720,291!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 838% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 164% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of March 18, 2025 Josh Kohn-Lindquist has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Sportradar Group Ag. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Sportradar Stock Rocketed Higher This Week was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Bloomberg
19-03-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Ari Emanuel Is Paying Sportradar to Take IMG Arena Off His Hands
Sportradar Group AG, the Switzerland-based sports technology provider, isn't paying a dime to take over Endeavor Group Holdings Inc. 's IMG Arena business. Endeavor, the sports and talent management business co-founded by superagent Ari Emanuel, will pay Sportradar $125 million to assume the operation and an additional $100 million to sports rights holders, according to an announcement from the two companies Wednesday.
