Sports data technology firm Genius Sports has entered into an agreement to acquire creative performance platform Spirable, with a focus on strengthening its video marketing capabilities.
Although financial details of the transaction have not yet been confirmed, it is understood that it will be completed in the second half of 2021, subject to customary closing conditions.
Through the takeover, Genius Sports intends to leverage Spirable’s video platform and combine this system with its official sports data collection and distribution operations and client network to reduce costs for partners and enable ‘deeper engagement’ and ‘higher performance’.
Mark Locke, CEO of Genius Sports, remarked: “With the increasing convergence of sports, betting and media, personalized video advertising has become an essential requirement to attract, engage and acquire customers.
“We are delighted to add Spirable’s specialist capabilities to our rapidly expanding suite of fan engagement tools, combining official data feeds across hundreds of competitions with fully immersive video content.”
A data provider to the sports wagering and media sectors, Genius was also driven to undertake the transaction in order to boost its commercial links, as Spirable maintains connections to leading sports betting and gaming operators such as Betway, DraftKings, Entain, Flutter Entertainment, WynnBet and 888 Holdings.
Spirable currently works to enable advertisers to deliver data, video and AI driven content across digital media channels for the betting operators, brands and sponsors, rights holders and broadcaster and OTT streaming services, using a single platform.
The company utilises live and contextual data and AI to create and distribute personalised content across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Snapchat, in addition to other major digital media networks, for its clients.
As a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) developer, the Spirable platform has been described by Genius as ‘highly complementary’ to its own media and advertising products, enabling the NYSE-listed company to deliver ‘contextually relevant and personalised content’ to sports fans.
“The sports sector has always been at the pinnacle of advertising and marketing, and more than ever brands are looking to maximize their engagement with fans before, during and after events,” said Ger O’Meara, CEO of Spirable.
“Over the past six years, our talented team has helped change the way brands create, scale and optimize creative to reach their customers. Together with Genius Sports, we will work to offer more valuable real-time content that will increase fan interaction and retention.”
The transaction follows Genius’ $200 million takeover of data tracking and visualisation firm Second Synergy earlier this year, also expected to reach completion in the second half of 2021, and conducted with the aim of creating a ‘complete end-to-end offering for the sports, betting and media ecosystem’.
