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Entertainment conglomerate Endeavor is paying a US rival $225mn to take a portfolio of lossmaking sports data rights off its hands, as the talent agency cleans house ahead of its private equity takeover.
Nasdaq-listed Sportradar said on Wednesday that Endeavor, which is led by Hollywood powerbroker Ari Emanuel and is in the process of being taken private by US-based Silver Lake, had paid it to take over the company’s IMG Arena data platform and its portfolio of sports betting rights.
Endeavor will pay Nasdaq-listed Sportradar up to $225mn under the deal, comprising $125mn for the business and up to $100mn in cash prepayments to some of its partners for future rights payments.
The transaction is Endeavor’s latest manoeuvre as it works with Silver Lake to streamline the agency’s operations in order to focus on its talent representation business WME.
Endeavor’s sports data and technology segment, which included IMG Arena, has bled cash in recent quarters after spending heavily to acquire rights to data feeds from major sports events such as Wimbledon, the US Open and the PGA Tour.
Endeavor admitted in quarterly financial filings last year that IMG Arena had struggled to sell its data packages, causing the business to lose money. Its sports and data unit reported an operating loss of $284mn in 2024 that included a large writedown of IMG Arena.
Sportradar, which provides sports data feeds to bookmakers and other customers, is banking on being able to monetise IMG Arena’s rights and stabilise sales and cash flows. In a statement it said the new rights would expand its “content distribution and further [fuel] product development”.
The company will take on rights in basketball, football and tennis, which are the three most bet on sports in the world and account for roughly 70 per cent of IMG Arena’s rights. The rights include tennis grand slams — Wimbledon, the US Open and Roland-Garros — PGA Tour golf, EuroLeague basketball and Major League Soccer in North America.
Silver Lake agreed to take Endeavor private last year, giving it an equity value of $13bn, following its three years of lacklustre performance as a listed company.
The deal followed Endeavor’s decision in 2023 to merge its mixed martial arts Ultimate Fighting Championship with World Wrestling Entertainment into a new US-listed company called TKO. Endeavor owns the bulk of the new business.
Endeavor subsequently offloaded sports agency IMG, hospitality business On Location and the Professional Bull Riders league to TKO. It is also exploring the sale of the Frieze art fair and tennis tournaments in Miami and Madrid.
In November, Endeavor agreed to sell OpenBet and IMG Arena for $450mn in a management buyout backed by Emanuel and OpenBet chief Jordan Levin.
At the time, Endeavor said it would continue to market IMG Arena for sale to other bidders, however, paving the way for the Sportradar agreement.
Emanuel and Levin will still acquire OpenBet, for a fraction of the $800mn that Endeavor paid in 2022 to get the business.
The deal with Sportradar is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year.
Sportradar chief executive Carsten Koerl said the “unique structure” of the deal “accelerates our revenue and cash flow profile and will be immediately accretive to our margins”.
The company’s annual revenue increased 26 per cent to €1.1bn last year, it reported on Wednesday, while net profit remained broadly unchanged year on year, at €34mn. The group said its earnings were hit by foreign currency losses, as it reports in euros but pays for certain sports rights in dollars.
