Sportradar AG, a global leader in understanding and leveraging the power of sports data and content solutions, has acquired the shares and core business of the sportsman media holding GmbH from the CEOs and founders of the sportsman, Thomas Krohne and Karl Wieseneder. The sportsman is one of Europe’s leading sports media rights, marketing and platform companies.
The deal agreed upon by the parties will significantly upgrade Sportradar’s offering in the audiovisual sports content sector. Last year, the two companies delivered over 27,000 live broadcasts to the betting and gaming industry. This combined portfolio will create one of the largest and most compelling audiovisual sports offerings currently available from a single provider, including premium content such as the Bundesliga, DFB Pokal and Copa del Rey in football, basketball’s CBA, volleyball’s CEV, ITF Tennis and ice hockey’s KHL, as well as some of the most important audiovisual betting content available across table tennis, badminton and many other events and event series.
Under the terms of the deal, Sportradar will acquire the sportsman media group GmbH (the sports rights and marketing agency with the sportsman’s betting and gaming services), LAOLA1.tv (the international online sports TV), LAOLA1 Multimedia (the operator of Austria’s largest sports website as well as new media service partner for clubs and organizations), and unas media productions (the live streaming and video-platform production arm), and will integrate them into the existing Sportradar business. While the acquisition paperwork has now been signed by the two parties, the deal still needs to be approved by the relevant anti-trust authorities and the current expectation is that closing will occur no later than June 2016.
Speaking about the acquisition, the sportsman media holding founder and Co-CEO Thomas Krohne said: “We have chosen an ideal buyer for our group of companies with Sportradar. The sports rights, production and platform business we set up perfectly complements that of Sportradar. The clear synergies give us confidence that the company we built up and our staff have very good future prospects under Carsten Koerl’s stewardship. This was important to us when choosing this buyer. The size and international orientation of Sportradar offer the ideal conditions for successfully developing the business we set up. “