Sports Betting Giant DraftKings Planing Merger, To Go Public
BOSTON (AP) - Sports betting giant DraftKings prepares to merge with two other companies and go public, the Boston-based business revealed Monday.
DraftKings stated it will complete its merger with gambling tech firm SBTech and acquisition company Diamond Eagle Acquisition at some point in the first half of 2020.
DraftKings stated the combined company will be valued at $3.3 billion, and it will have $500 million on hand as soon as the offer is complete.
The new company will retain the DraftKings name and business co-founder and CEO Jason Robins will continue to lead it, in addition to a management team that consists of co-founders Paul Liberman and Matt Kalish.
DraftKings said it will also reincorporate in Nevada but stay physically headquartered in Boston, where it is among the city's biggest tech business, with roughly 600 employees in its recently opened headquarters in the Back Bay neighborhood.
The 3 business are combining through a special purpose acquisition, an approach of taking a company public that varies from the more familiar going public, or IPO, process, DraftKings said.
The new company will efficiently assume Diamond Eagle's publicly-traded status, though under a brand-new stock ticker symbol.
It will likewise receive a $400 million infusion from the Los Angeles-based company, which was founded previously this year by Jeff Sagansky, a previous president of CBS Entertainment, and Harry Sloan, a former chairman and CEO of MGM, in order to buy media and digital entertainment endeavors.
SBTech's management group, on the other hand, will be incorporated into the new company, but the information of that will not be revealed till next year, according to DraftKings.
The company has workplaces on the Isle of Man, in London and in other places in Europe, and offers sports wagering software and programs to betting operations internationally. It was founded in 2007.
DraftKings was established in Boston in 2012 as a purveyor of everyday fantasy sports contests, which are are that challenge players to build rosters of real athletes in order to contend for cash and other rewards based upon how those athletes do in video games.
The company has actually given that expanded into online and retail sports books operations in the handful of states that have legislated sports wagering, consisting of Indiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Iowa, Mississippi, New Jersey and New York City.
DraftKings had actually previously attempted to merge with its primary competitor, FanDuel.
But the 2 business ditched the strategies in 2017 after the Federal Trade Commission and the attorney generals of the United States of California and the District of Columbia sued to obstruct it over antitrust concerns.
New York-based FanDuel completed a merger with Dublin-based video gaming giant Paddy Power Betfair last year instead.
This story has been updated to remedy that the business are preparing an unique function acquisition, not a going public.