Digital media company Perform is set to take over real-time sports information provider RunningBall to enhance its sports editorial and video production facilities.
Watch&Trade, the group’s live sports video service for sportsbook trading desks, the group’s business-to-business service, will be enhanced with the launch of a fully integrated new trading product including both real-time data and video. Watch&Bet, the live streaming service for online direct-to-customer sportsbooks, will be upgraded to offer betting customers the chance to receive a combined product including both data and video.
The proposed acquisition, at €120 million ($157 million), would be the largest and most significant in Perform’s history. Oliver Slipper, joint chief executive of Perform, said: “RunningBall is a perfect fit for Perform – its high-quality real-time data provides us with a huge depth of additional live event coverage and offers us significant opportunities across the group. We are really excited about this transaction, which will further consolidate Perform’s position as one of the leading digital sports businesses.”
Hans Thomas Gross, RunningBall’s founder and chief executive, said: “Our focus on supplying quality live data is very complementary to Perform’s sports editorial and video products, opening up a wide range of opportunities to capitalise on.”
Headquartered in Switzerland, RunningBall produced real-time data coverage of over 35,000 sporting events in 2011, including over 30,000 football matches, producing over 1,000 items of data in relation to each match.