Sportradar makes American acquisition to build global offering

Private equity-backed Sportradar has made an expansion play by acquiring US-based SportsData.

Sports and betting business Sportradar has added American sports to its offering by buying SportsData for an undisclosed amount.

The deal is said to ‘compliment’ Sportradar’s European product portfolio with all major US sports, allowing it to become a ‘truly global’ sports and betting content business.

Back in July 2012, Sportradar secured £34.9 million of expansion capital from private equity firm EQT. The Switzerland-headquartered business, which has its UK base in London, believed the time was right for ‘strategic cooperation’ between the two.

New acquisition SportsData will reportedly focus on producing an expanded product portfolio to media customers and fantasy sports companies.

Carsten Koerl, CEO of Sportradar, comments, ‘This acquisition marks another milestone in our endeavour to become the world’s leading global service provider for sports content and information.

‘With its state-of-the-art infrastructure and its focus on technology, SportsData perfectly matches our strategy of continuously investing in technology and development to provide our customers with an unrivalled product and service quality.’

By entering the American market, Koerl says, the business will be better prepared to play a ‘leading role’ in the sports services market.

Going forward, both companies will be offering customers a combined product portfolio including real-time scores and play-by-play data feeds.

SportsData CEO Rob Phythian says that it was Sportradar’s strong European market position and financial backing that attracted him.

‘Our shared focus on technology and scalable solutions as well as our complimentary product offering, customer portfolio and geographic presence make this a perfect partnership,’ he adds.

‘We strongly believe in the continued growth of the US sports market, as well as the globalisation of both US and international sports, and are convinced that SportsData can support Sportradar’s ambitious growth targets.’

Hunter Ruthven

Hunter Ruthven

Hunter was the Editor for GrowthBusiness.co.uk from 2012 to 2014, before moving on to Caspian Media Ltd to be Editor of Real Business.

Related Topics

Management buyout