What happened
Shares of Sports Entertainment Acquisition (SEAH) jumped 11% early Monday before paring gains to about 5% as of 2 p.m. EDT. The special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) announced a deal to merge with a sports-betting and online-gaming company over the weekend.
So what
Sports Entertainment plans to bring Super Group public, giving the combined public company a $4.75 equity valuation. Super Group is the holding company for both Betway, an online sports-betting brand, and Spin, an online casino-gaming operation. Super Group currently has over 2.5 million monthly active customers outside the U.S. Super Group additionally has reached an agreement to acquire Digital Gaming Corporation (DGC), which has the rights to use the Betway brand in the U.S. and will give the newly combined company access to up to an initial 10 U.S. states.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
The combined group had $1.1 billion in net gaming revenue (NGR) in 2020 and estimates that will grow to $1.7 billion in 2022. By comparison, DraftKings (DKNG -2.31%) said in its fourth-quarter 2020 earnings release that it expects total revenue of between $900 million and $1 billion in 2021. Net gaming revenue discounts any prizes, payment-processor fees, chargebacks, refunds, fraud, platform or network-provider fees, which DraftKings didn't break out.
Super Group also had positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) in 2020, and believes that will continue to grow to about $420 million in 2022. Neal Menashe, CEO of Super Group, said in a statement, "This listing will position us strongly to capitalize on the significant global growth opportunities ahead -- including in the U.S. market -- enabling us to further expand our robust, loyal and engaged customer base."