The UK’s antitrust watchdog has escalated its investigation into Sportradar’s planned acquisition of IMG Arena, a move which will hugely expand the company’s reach in sports data rights.
Updating its webpage on the Sportradar investigation, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) revealed that a merger inquiry got underway on 29 August, having first flagged the deal in July.
The regulator invited relevant parties involved in the deal in July. This would logically include Sportradar, IMG Arena, and the latter’s current owner, OpenBet, and this firm’s parent company, American holding group Endeavor. This invitation to comment has now closed as the merger inquiry begins.
The CMA is investigating whether the acquisition will violate certain terms of the Enterprise Act 2002 by leading to a ‘relevant merger situation’ which could lead to a “substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the UK for goods or services”.
With a merger inquiry now launched, the CMA has between today (1 September) and 24 October to decide whether the merger should be referred for a phase two investigation. This would see the merger come under the scrutiny of an independent panel of experts.
A sticking point for Sportradar, nothing new for CMA
Sportradar first secured terms to acquire IMG Arena from American holding company Endeavor back in March. Financial terms were not disclosed, but what was made clear is how much the deal will expand Sportradar’s international standing.
The deal, once completed, will see the Swiss-based global sportstech firm integrate IMG’s betting data rights deals with 70 different rightsholders, covering 39,000 data events and 30,000 streaming events across 14 sports.
IMG Arena’s data rights partners include Wimbledon, the PGA Tour, EuroLeague Basketball and Major League Soccer (MLS). This would make Sportradar’s portfolio of data rights partners, which includes the MLB and NBA, even more formidable.
This would in turn make Sportradar an even stronger player in global betting data rights, a hugely lucrative business as a service to the international betting industry – including in the UK, where the deal has fallen under the crosshairs of the CMA.
The CMA is no stranger to investigating deals connected to the betting industry. An investigation into SpreadEx’s acquisition of Sporting Index from Groupe FDJ (now FDJ United) back in 2023 has been under investigation for some time, for example, and identified some competitive concerns in June this year.
International dynamics at play
Another interesting consideration around the CMA investigation is the international reach and presence of the deal. IMG is a London-based enterprise, as stated above owned by Openbet and its parent group Endeavor.
The offloading of IMG Arena marks the continuation of a transformation for Endeavor, which has been selling its betting assets. OpenBet itself came under the ownership of its own management earlier this year, for example, and the sale of IMG Arena will further focus Endeavor on its sports assets of the UFC and WWE, managed via TKO Group.
The fact that the deal has so much significance internationally could lead to an interesting legal situation, however. Should the CMA decide to oppose the deal under UK law but US regulators approve it under US law, what situation would this leave Sportradar in?
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