Genius Sports has acquired sports and gaming media technology company Legend in a deal worth up to $1.2bn, as the New York-listed supplier looks to bolster its media tech division.
The transaction will see Genius Sports pay $900m upon closing of the deal, with the remaining $300m paid in potential earnouts.
The $900m will comprise $800m in cash and $100m in stock consideration.
The earnout, which is linked to certain profitability and cash flow threshold targets, is payable in either cash or stock at Genius Sports’ election.
Genius Sports will fund the deal via an $850m Term Loan B issuance. Pro forma leverage is expected to be below 3x.
In 2025, Legend generated 320 million annual visits across its sites from 118 million unique visitors.
The Jersey-based business runs more than 25 brands across the globe and employs more than 800 people.
Genius Sports described Legend as a “global, digital sports and gaming media network”.
Genius Sports said the transaction would be “immediately accretive” to adjusted EBITDA margins and free cash flow.
On an annualised pro forma basis for 2026, Genius Sports said revenue would be around $1.1bn, adjusted EBITDA between $320m and $330m and free cash flow conversion of 50%.
The business also provided a preliminary full-year 2025 update. Revenue is expected to hit $669m, while adjusted EBITDA is projected to be $136m. This would reflect a 31% and 59% increase, respectively.
Looking ahead to 2028, Genius Sports said group revenue is expected to be around $1.6bn, with an approximate compound annual growth rate of 21% between 2026 and 2028.
Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs served as Genius Sports’ financial advisers and Macfarlanes and Kirkland & Ellis were legal counsel on the acquisition.
Oakvale Capital and The Raine Group supported Legend on the financial side, as did Latham & Watkins and Herzog Fox & Neeman on the legal front.
In September, Genius Sports announced the acquisition of Sports Innovation Lab, in a move bosses said would provide the “most comprehensive fan database in sports and entertainment”.
The acquisition helped the New York-listed firm build on its FANHub product, launched in October 2024.
FANHub allows advertisers to oversee “programmatic and social media buying, audience activation and creative personalisation”.
As per Genius Sports’ Q3 2025 earnings report, the business’ media arm reported an 88.9% year-on-year (YoY) jump in revenue to $41.8m, up from $22.1m.
Management confirmed these gains were derived from “higher programmatic advertising services”.
Mark Locke, Genius Sports CEO, said: “This deal accelerates our strategic and financial objectives, supercharges fan monetisation and builds a fully integrated sports and gaming media network.
“For Genius Sports and our global partners, it delivers more data, more audience, more inventory and greater monetisation of sports fans.
“The acquisition of Legend will drive higher margins and stronger free cash flow, positioning Genius Sports to immediately transform the market and grow the size and scale of our business.”
Nick Kisberg, Legend founder, added: “Joining forces with Genius Sports brings together two world-class teams, unlocks unparalleled growth opportunities for our partners and products and gives us an even stronger platform to scale.
“I am immensely proud of what we have built and the decades of hard work that have brought us here today”.
Genius Sports shares are down around 22% so far in 2026, trading at $8.54 at the time of writing.
The post Genius Sports strikes $1.2bn deal to acquire sports and gaming media platform Legend first appeared on EGR Intel.
Sports data giant to shell out an initial $900m as part of plans to ramp up media capabilities, which follows on from last year’s acquisition of Sports Innovation Lab
The post Genius Sports strikes $1.2bn deal to acquire sports and gaming media platform Legend first appeared on EGR Intel.