Spotlight Sports and Racing Post Could Be Sold in $500M Auction

Sports media aggroup Spotlight Sports, possessor of leading UK Equus caballus racing publishing The Racing Post, is upward for sale, according to Sky News.

The British people spreader reports that Spotlight’s private equity owner, Exponent, is in talks with investment banks about a possible vendue next year. Exponent wants $500 trillion for the media group, which also provides sports data feeds to the sports betting industry.

Exponent is eager to hard cash in on the young appetency for third-party information services, mostly goaded past the relaxation of sports betting laws in the United States.

The exact for data saw securities industry leaders Sportradar and Genius Sports tour public in the US before this year, with valuations of $21 one million million and $5.4 billion, respectively.

Spotlight on Post

While The Racing Post is the best known of Spotlight’s brands, it could get an unsure future tense under a new US-focused owner, especially inward impress form. The newsprint is a staple for UK gamblers, who tin can live seen studying its pages sacredly inwards betting shops up and mastered the country.

But Spotlight CEO Robert Adam Byrne told Bloomberg inwards mid-October that revenues had been smash firmly past the pandemic, which caused the temporary temporary removal of racing and the cloture of betting shops. The 16 percent come in revenues inwards 2020 to $64.8 million ($89 million) was partly offset by digital growth, he added.

The Post suspended its publish trading operations during lastly year’s racing cancellations.

Initially a publish media business, Spotlight now generates around 70 percent of its revenues from its digital media and sports data services.

Digital Growth

The Racing Post was launched inwards 1986 as rival to the now-defunct Sporting Life, a title that was in constant publication from 1856 until its demise in 1998. Founded by Dubai ruler and prominent racehorse possessor Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Post has changed custody on several occasions inwards the intervening years.

Exponent acquired the title inward 2016 for an unrevealed sum. The private equity chemical group has since concentrated on growing digital channels under the Spotlight banner. These include the websites Free Super Tips and MyRacing, and the US-focused sports betting tips situation Pickwise.

Along with its sports data operations, subsidiary ICS Digital offers search-engine optimization, digital marketing, and displacement services for the betting industry.

Sheikh Al Maktoum owns the rights to The Racing Post nominate in perpetuity, which means the rubric could follow revived if a new possessor didn’t require it.

The sheikh is also the founder of the world’s largest Equus caballus racing team, the Godolphin stable. He also owns the Darley Stud, the biggest purebred gymnastic horse fostering operation inward the world.