Entain has formally closed the deal to acquire Angstrom Sports in a bid to improve the sportsbook capabilities of the BetMGM platform.
Terms of the deal sheet see Entain pay a guaranteed £81m to buy the US sports analytics and modeling company. There are an additional $122m worth of performance-based payments payable over the next three years.
Entain CEO, Jette Nygaard-Andersen, commented on the integration: “We are delighted that Angstrom has joined Entain, enabling us to accelerate development of the Entain Platform bringing even more product capabilities in-house.
“Angstrom’s proprietary next-generation capabilities will unlock significant opportunities, particularly for our US sports betting offering through BetMGM. We look forward to working closely with the Angstrom team and are excited to provide our customers with an unrivaled sports betting experience.”
Via this acquisition, Entain will take advantage of Angstrom’s in-house forecasting, analytics, risk and pricing capabilities for the US sports betting markets.
The transaction seeks to greatly improve the BetMGM sportsbook product after criticisms from MGM Resorts CEO Bill Hornbuckle over the summer.
At MGM’s Q2 earnings call, Hornbuckle told investors: “Candidly, our product is not where we want it to be. I think the moves that we’re now making though, with Entain, and with the moves we’re gonna make with Angstrom, as an onboarded partner for BetMGM will get us to a place where we’ll be back in that game in a meaningful way.”
Now the deal has closed, Angstrom will integrate into the Entain platform and look to make instant improvements to the product.
Specifically, the deal will look to improve BetMGM’s in-play betting offerings in a bid to improve the platform’s profit margins.
Long term aims of the deal include taking BetMGM’s sports betting market share to 20-25%.
Nygaard-Anderson explained some of the benefits that Angstrom can offer to Entain and BetMGM: “In this case simulation, risk analysis and pricing around more complex products such as parlays and in-play products, which are more recreational customer-type products.
“This is a highly strategic move in accelerating our US strategy and we are excited to be bringing key capabilities in-house making us the only operator with full end-to-end capabilities for risk analysis and pricing across all forms of sports betting products. It also accelerates our ability to offer more tailored and personalized products for customers while optimizing margins through risk management and pricing.”
Last week, Entain updated investors on a tough trading period globally, but BetMGM generated $944m in net revenue, expecting up to $2bn in revenue for the full year.
The firm has also noted that it has no further plans to invest additional investment capital beyond the $150m committed this year.
