Sports betting exchange Betfair has been issued with a buy recommendation from investment bank Jefferies. The bank gave a target share price of 940p and gave the firm’s new fixed odds platform as a reason for growth. Andrew Lee commented: “At risk revenue remains small and down 13% YoY. This does however, highlight the opportunities that the new Fixed Odds platform will provide. Gaming growth remains anaemic and was essentially flat YoY in 2Q, another weakness of Betfair’s which we believe Betfair will address in time.”
Former CEO David Yu who thinks it will be pivotal in new markets that haven’t regulated sports betting such as Spain.
Sports content provider Perform Group has acquired the remaining share capital in WatchandTrade. The firm takes on the 40% of shares from founder and managing director Michael Cobain for an initial consideration of £550,000. It can rise to a maximum deferred cash consideration of £5.85million depending on an agreed calculation involving full year EBITDA for years ending 31 December 2011, 2012 and 2013. WatchandTrade, which was established in November 2009, delivers live video content and technical services to sportsbooks. Perform took on the original stake in January 2010 for £60,000 and the acquisition just goes to show the growth in live content since the beginning of last year.
The firm has also taken on the remaining shares in Dutch company Global Sports Media (GSM). Perform gets the remaining 49% for €4.3million and will aim to take advantage of the business’s leading position in the sports data market. GSM runs the Oddsway website as well as the successful Soccerway and Scoresway sites. Perform will also benefit from the plethora of leading sports information data on offer, and Oliver Slipper, joint CEO of Perform commented: “We are delighted to have completed the acquisition of GSM and look forward to continuing its growth in the sports data and sports website fields.”
