Endeavor Group Holdings, the owner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, will buy sports betting firm OpenBet from Scientific Games for $1.2 billion in cash and stock, the companies said on Monday.
Endeavor, whose shares were up nearly 9% in extended trading, said the acquisition will strengthen its position in the sports betting industry. It comes at a time when the online gambling space has been seeing frenetic dealmaking.
Last week, British gambling firm Entain said it had received a takeover proposal from U.S. fantasy sports betting company DraftKings, valuing it at $22.4 billion.
Demand for online betting has boomed during the pandemic as customers took to playing from home when casinos and betting shops were off-limits.
The OpenBet deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022, will be financed through $1 billion in cash and $200 million worth of Endeavor's Class A common stock, the companies said.