SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Entain Plc has announced the completion of its acquisition of Angstrom Sports to enhance the in-play sports betting capabilities of US joint-venture BetMGM.
The deal, first announced on 17 July, will see Entain pay an initial consideration of £81m to acquire Angstrom, a dedicated specialist on sports modeling, forecasting and match analytics for all major US sports.
Angstrom’s buyout is further rewarded with performance-based contingency payments totalling a maximum of £122m over the next three years.
Of strategic significance to the management of BetMGM, Entain will acquire Angstrom’s “sophisticated in-house forecasting, analytics, risk and pricing capabilities for US Sports betting markets”.
Branded as a transformative M&A for BetMGM’s North American prospects, Entain CEO Jette Nygaard-Andersen, commented on the integration: “We are delighted that Angstrom has joined Entain, enabling us to accelerate development of the Entain Platform bringing even more product capabilities in-house.
“Angstrom’s proprietary next generation capabilities will unlock significant opportunities, particularly for our US sports betting offering through BetMGM. We look forward to working closely with the Angstrom team and are excited to provide our customers with an unrivalled sports betting experience.”
Interim trading saw BetMGM generate $944m in net revenue, as Entain stands by the FY2023 revenue guidance that the JV will generate revenue of between $1.8bn and $2bn.
Hard targets for BetMGM see Entain and MGM Resorts underscore that the JV business will be ‘profits effective’ by the close of 2023 trading.
Closing the Angstrom deal, Entain maintains that BetMGM will require no additional investment capital beyond the $150m allocated this year.
US growth is required for Entain to achieve its corporate targets of generating +€1bn EBITDA, as last week the FTSE100 gambling group warned of investors of ‘softer Q3 trading’ impacting the performance of its European and Australian online portfolio.
