July 4 – The growing desirability and influence of sports statistics has been underlined by the Perform digital media group agreeing to buy Opta Sports Data for over £40 million ($60 million). The deal is conditional on a successful £120m fundraising. Opta offers statistical information and player performance data from football leagues in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands to media clients and clubs themselves.
Floated in April 2011, Perform has built its burgeoning business on buying online rights to major sports events and selling video clips or live streams to bookmakers and media groups. It also operates the Goal.com football website and last year acquired Runningball, another sports data company, for a reported €120m.
Opta’s venture-capital backers, Albion Capital, are understood to have put the company up for sale. Originally known as Sportingstatz, Opta was founded in 1996 by Toby Russell, collecting all kinds of on-the-field information that are now an integral part of the game. Opta counts BSkyB among its clients and turned over just over £10.8m in the 12 months to July 2012, the last full-year available.
“We are excited by the acquisition of Opta, which will significantly enhance our existing sports data offering, particularly to the media industry and to sports fans,” said Oliver Slipper, joint chief executive of Perform. “It’s a big growth area and in Europe in particular we’re just at the start of the growth curve. We hope to grow Opta’s presence in the U.S. and the expand the content range we’re creating.”
Philip Barker, a partner at Cavendish Corporate Finance who advised Opta on the deal, said because sports data is such a desirable product, Perform had paid a premium price.
“The sports data sector is one of the hottest areas in mergers and acquisitions at the moment, reflected in the global level of interest we received for Opta and the proposed price,” he said. “Having also acted on the sale of world-leading ball tracking technology specialist Hawk Eye to Japan’s Sony Corporation, and we have a strong pipeline of further potential deals in this area”.