#101 🤝 2024 Sports Tech M&A recap

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We’re talked a fair bit about investment in sports tech looking better in Q3. Though Mergers & Acquisitions activity has been fairly strong all through the year, it is still a fair way down from 2023. Details to be covered in our upcoming VC report, though this edition will bring you a quick preview.

As always, have a great weekend!

The Sports Tech Mergers & Acquisitions Landscape in 2024

The sports tech M&A market in the last 5 years experienced fluctuations in both deal volume and transaction value. We called 2023 ‘The year of consolidation’, 2024 has seen more but nothing like last year.

Total M&A deals in for the period 2020-2024 amounted to $26.3 billion across 263 transactions. The highest peak occurred in 2023, when the sector saw deals worth $10.9 billion, increasing consolidation across the industry. However, this momentum was tempered in 2024, with a $4.36 billion in disclosed deal values. 

Among the major transactions in the past year, noteworthy deals included:

• Snaitech (Italy) was acquired by Flutter Entertainment (Ireland) for $2.6 billion, further consolidating the gaming and betting sectors.

• Jackpocket was acquired by DraftKings for $750m, adding the leading digital lottery app in the United States to their portfolio of companies

• ASM Global and Topgolf, two U.S.-based companies, were also involved in large-scale deals, emphasizing the strategic consolidation within the hospitality and sports entertainment industries.

From a sector perspective, the largest share of M&A deals in 2024 involved companies focused on Activity & Performance (35.4% of the total), followed by Fans & Content (27%). These trends reflect the ongoing demand for solutions that enhance fan engagement and performance analytics.

VC Report 2024 Pre-Sale Offer: 50% discount on Report + PRO DB, both for €999!

The next edition of our VC Report will be out in the first week of November. As always, there will be a FREE edition for all to download.

But we also have a PRO edition (see 2023 report) with about 20 additional pages for those who want to dive deeper into what happened in Sports Tech in the last year.

As part of the report pre-launch, we’re running a limited time offer 🕒

Purchase the SportsTech DB Pro and the 2024 Sports Tech VC Report Pro at 50% off, both for €999!

PS. Fancy a (paid) feature in our upcoming report? We have only 2 startup feature spots remaining so get your interest in quick.

Your startup / product / announcement / fund/ initiative could be in 50k+ social impressions and 2k+ downloads (numbers the 2023 edition received).

Top News from the World of Sports Tech & Biz

🚀 Huawei launched its ultra-premium GT5 smartwatch with an emotional wellbeing assistant and AI-powered sports and fitness tracking.   

🏀 NBA App launched new multiview features ahead of the 2024-25 season, where fans can watch up to 4 games simultaneously across connected devices.

🏈 The Los Angeles Rams collaborated with Genius Sports to provide their fans with augmented, data-driven in-game highlights within SoFi Stadium.

🏈 The NFL announced the seventh annual Big Data Bowl competition powered by AWS. The NFL crowd-sourcing competition for the sports analytics community is aimed at challenging applicants to use Next Gen Stats to generate insights to enhance the game.

✅ Happy Health, a health tech company based in Texas, received FDA clearance for its consumer-focused platform designed to bring clinical-grade healthcare directly into the home.

🏅 Technogym was awarded the EcoVadis Gold Medal for Sustainability, placing it within the top 5% of global companies.

💪🏽 Pivotal launched Action for Women’s Health, a $250 million global open call, managed by Lever for Change, that will fund organisations working to improve women’s mental and physical health. 

🏀 Former NBA player Gordon Hayward launched FORM, a basketball product for those who want to become better shooters. 

🎦 The use of semi-automated offside technology (SOAT), employed by UEFA during the Euro Cup, will be debated in Germany with a view to implement it in the Bundesliga next season.  

Money Talks:

🏈 NFL owners approved Tom Brady’s purchase of Las Vegas Raiders’ minority 5% stake as part of total deal worth $220 million. 

💰 Vozzi, a provider of fan communication, engagement and text-to-buy software, raised $7 million from Growth Street Partners. 

💰 Eyeball.Club, a Czech sports tech company helping professional football clubs scout and recruit young talent, closed a €5 million seed funding round. 

💰 US based RotoUnderworld, that analyzes statistical data for fantasy sports, raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding.

💰 Sports For Life (SFL), a Indian sports tech startup, secured $1.1 million in funding, to help scale up sports academies across the country. 

💰 LeagueApps, a youth sports management platform, received a significant equity investment of an undisclosed amount from Accel-KKR, a technology-focused investment firm. 

💰 Dryvebox, the pioneering mobile golf simulator company, received additional funding of an undisclosed amount by TMRW Sports, Golf Digest, Old Tom Capital, and EP Golf Ventures. 

🤝 Thirty-5 Capital announced a strategic investment of an undisclosed amount in Yobow, a provider of athletic warm-up and injury prevention products.

🤝 Two Circles, the data-driven sports and entertainment business, acquired KORE, an intelligence platform for fans and partnerships, for an undisclosed amount.

🤝 UK-based esports organisation Guild Esports was acquired by US sports investment company DCB Sports LLC for $130k (£100k). 

🤝 Kinomap announced the strategic acquisition of Fit Immersion , who specialises in virtual reality cycling experiences, for an undisclosed amount. 

🤝 Sony acquired KinaTrax, a research-grade markerless motion capture technology for sports, for an undisclosed amount.

💰 Group One Holdings, the company behind MMA brand One Championship, raised approximately $50 million from investors including Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). 

Latest from our channels

🔙 STX Article: The Rise of Esports- Transforming the Future of Competitive Gaming.

✅ STX Monthly: Last month’s sports tech dealflow, in case you missed it.

💪🏽 SportsTech AllStars Recap: Innovation in Broadcasting Tech

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