Sportradar Makes Good on Desire to Be Publicly Traded Company
Becoming a publicly traded company on an American stock exchange has long been the goal of Swiss gambling data company, Sportradar. The self-described "leading global provider of sports data intelligence" on Tuesday capped off 14-month long process of becoming a publicly traded company with announcement that its shares were available on NASDAQ for public consumption under the NASDAQ ticker symbol “SRAD”.
The road to this point has been characterized by its share of ups and downs. But on Tuesday, the culmination of a lot of hard work and perseverance paid off with a ceremony to open NASDAQ trading that included NBA legend Michael Jordan as well as Sportradar founder and CEO Carsten Koerl.
“Ringing the Opening Bell at the NASDAQ as a public company is a significant milestone in the history of Sportradar,” Carsten Koerl said. “It is a testament to the ambition, originality and resourcefulness of our employees, the strength and commitment of our partners, the confidence and support of our investors and the vision of our customers. Moving forward, we’ll continue to propel digital transformation across the sports ecosystem as a result of our dedication to developing the most innovative products and solutions that drive fan engagement.”
The Downs
Sportradar has had two major letdowns the last year that are indirectly tied together. Firstly, the company came out on the losing end of a battle for exclusive rights to valuable NFL data for sportsbooks around the country. Genius Sports swooped in and won those exclusive rights leaving that crown jewel of sports data in the hands of the competition.
During negotiations with the NFL, SPAC company Horizon Acquisition Corp. II stepped up with the promise to take Sportradar public - a deal that later fell apart for “unknown” reasons. There have been rumors that Sportradar's loss of the NFL data rights had something to do with the SPAC's reluctance to move forward.
The Ups
Sportradar didn't let the SPAC backout deter them from their desire to be publicly traded. The company carved a new path and raised an estimated $513 million, thanks to their sale of 19,000,000 Class A ordinary shares. Those shares are now worth $27 thanks to a nearly $8 billion evaluation. Underwriters have been granted 30 days to purchase an additional 2.85 million shares.
Sportradar went public with the backing of some high-profile Americans including Michael Jordan who headlined the ceremony welcoming the company to NASDAQ. Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly, who was a part of the SPAC hoping to take Sportradar public months ago bought 6 million shares himself ahead of the company getting to this stage.
Kind of a Big Deal
Sportradar's status within the global sports betting industry was never in question. The company has 2300 full-time employees in 19 countries and has a presence in 120 nations across the globe. They have
1600 key partnerships with sports betting providers, sports leagues and individual teams around the world. They are the biggest player in the global sports data gathering space.
Sportradar, despite losing their official NFL partnership in the US boasts high level tie-ups with the NHL, NBA, MLB, NASCAR and FIFA as well as the most prominent sportsbooks in the market and a few key teams in the biggest pro leagues in the country. They reportedly record “over 1.2 billion live data points per year from over 600,000 events in 37 sports," globally that leads to an astounding 21 billion odds changes from their data per year.
The Gold Rush Continues
The money that is being talked about in the legal sports betting industry is mind-numbing. Sportradar's $8 billion evaluation during their IPO is just the latest proof. Data is only going to become more valuable and companies like Sportradar and their investors are poised to take advantage.
The stock did slip 7.22% after its first day of trading to land at $25.05 but better days are almost surely ahead for Sportradar
