The owner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the Endeavor Group Holdings, will acquire the sports betting business OpenBet from Scientific Games Corp for $1.2 billion in cash.
Endeavor shares increased nearly 10% in extended trading, and with their latest acquisition, they plan to strengthen their position in the sports betting industry. The company also plans to combine the sportsbook and gaming software OpenBet with their sports betting business IMG Arena. This comes as no surprise knowing that the sports betting industry is rising, and almost 13% of UK people regularly bet on sports.
Last week there was another proposal, as the US fantasy sports betting company DraftKings sent out a takeover proposal of $22.4 billion for the British gambling firm Entai.
Demand for online betting has flourished during the pandemic, and now, the global online gambling market is set to reach $9.3 billion in 2023. The main reason behind the rise of online betting is that customers mostly played from home as casinos and betting shops were closed during the pandemic.