Michael Jordan, the legendary former US basketball player, is set to increase his stake in Sportradar, the international sports data intelligence and digital content service provider has said.
Sportradar, based in Switzerland, announced yesterday that not only would Jordan increase his stake, but that he will also serve as a special advisor to the company’s board of directors.
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No specific details around Jordan’s increased stake have been disclosed yet, but Sportradar has said the main thrust of his advisory duties will revolve around marketing activities in the US and some elements of product development.
Sportradar, which went public through an initial public offering last week, raising $670 million in total, has said that it intends to leverage Jordan’s “expertise in establishing impactful business partnerships.”
Jordan said: “I invested in Sportradar years ago because I believed in the vision and passion that the team had for transforming the sports technology industry … I am looking forward to having a formal role with the company as it begins its next chapter.”
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Carsten Koerl, global chief executive at Sportradar, has added: “Over the past several years, the worlds of fandom, sports betting, and media have converged and, through his accomplishments on the court and in the boardroom, Michael sits at the intersection of these industries…
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By GlobalData“We are thrilled to now tap into his entrepreneurial savvy and business acumen as we develop the next wave of solutions and offerings.”
Sportradar sent out its IPO last week, pricing shares at $27 each in a process that valued the whole firm at $7.98 billion.
The IPO raised over $510 million in total, with the company having sold 19 million shares.
A group of investors meanwhile purchased $159 million of equity in the firm.
Sportradar went public through the Nasdaq stock exchange, under the symbol SRAD, having spent much of the last 12 months working to that aim.
Across the sports world, Sportradar has deals in place with top-tier leagues such as basketball’s NBA, ice hockey’s NHL, baseball’s MLB, and motor racing's Nascar, as well as similar arrangements with soccer governing bodies Fifa and Uefa.
The digital service provider has been building up its business in the US in the recently-liberalised betting landscape.
Copies of a preliminary prospectus, which constitutes the first form of the IPO, were made available from the New York offices of JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley in mid-August, at which point the company also filed the necessary registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US.
Sportradar has been looking at making the shift to being publicly traded in one form or another for the last year.
Jordan, meanwhile, joined the board of US fantasy sports company DraftKings last year, with that deal also involving the former basketball legend taking an equity stake.
