PERFORM confirmsOpta deal
eGR award winner raises funds for £40m acquisition through new share placing
eGaming Review sports data provider of the year PERFORM Group has confirmed plans to acquire fellow data firm Opta “conditional upon a successful fundraising”.
The data firm has announced a placing of up to 23.9m new shares to raise £120m for the Opta deal specifically and an additional strong pipeline of acquisition opportunities.
The proposed Opta acquisition, worth approximately £40m, would be the latest in a line of high profile deals from the firm, which provides its Watch&Bet live streaming service to a number of egaming operators including bet365 and Unibet. Last year PERFORM acquired RunningBall in a landmark £120m deal, while it has also made regional acquisitions in the form of Mackolik, Sportal and Voetbalzone.
Today’s announcement confirms last month’s media reports that the two parties were in advanced talks over an acquisition. PERFORM had revealed it was looking to invest in “content, partnerships and further acquisitions in last week’s H1 trading update.
“We are excited by the acquisition of Opta, which will significantly enhance our existing sports data offering particularly to the media industry and to sports fans,” PERFORM joint-CEO Oliver Slipper said.
Opta already has agreements in place with a number of operators such as Paddy Power, William Hill and Ladbrokes, and provides data feeds for most mainstream sports. A statement from PERFORM said the proposed deal would “complement PERFORM’s existing content distribution business” and “create a leading player in the provision of sports data to the media and bookmaker sectors”.
“The proposed acquisition would strengthen both PERFORM and Opta’s position in key European markets and would enhance PERFORM’s current portfolio of sports content solutions,” the firm added.