The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has cleared Sportradar’s acquisition of IMG Arena in a positive result for the New York-listed supplier.
The UK monopoly watchdog issued a clearance decision this morning, 3 October, effectively allowing the acquisition to go ahead.
Further details of the CMA’s ruling have yet to be published. The body said a full text of the decision would be made public “shortly”.
The CMA only announced its merger inquiry on 29 August, with ‘phase one’ of the investigation commencing on 1 September.
The body had set a deadline of 24 October for a decision to be made on whether to advance the investigation to ‘phase two’.
Phase one involved the CMA speaking to various stakeholders, including Sportradar and IMG Arena, to ascertain if there’d be any potential monopoly risks as a result of the merger.
The CMA opened a preliminary investigation on 11 July, in which it issued an invitation to comment from interested parties.
Sportradar announced the deal to acquire IMG Arena in March in a transaction worth $225m. However, Sportradar will not pay to acquire IMG Arena.
IMG Arena parent company Endeavor will pay Sportradar $125m, while also handing over $100m in cash prepayments to certain rights holders.
IMG Arena’s existing portfolio contains more than 70 rightsholders and 39,000 official data events across multiple sports.
Basketball, football and tennis account for around 70% of the rights held by IMG Arena.
The deal, when it was announced, was expected to close in Q4 2025. It is unclear whether the CMA’s involvement will alter the expected timeline.
In March, Sportradar CEO Carsten Koerl said: “The addition of these strategic rights will unlock new growth opportunities, enabling us to deliver exceptional value to our partners, clients and shareholders.”
EGR has contacted Sportradar for comment.
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Competition watchdog issues clearance decision to allow transaction to take place, having opened an official inquiry at the start of September
The post CMA approves Sportradar’s acquisition of IMG Arena first appeared on EGR Intel.