Genius Sports has completed a $1.2 billion acquisition of sports media company Legend to position itself as a “digital sports and gaming media powerhouse”, according to a statement released by the latter.
Observers believe the deal to be highly significant, with Genius Sports now able to couple official sports data with a huge betting-focused media and marketing engine in what is a genuine structural edge in a margin-pressured market.
Unique partnership to create dual business synergy
In a statement, Genius Sports said the acquisition will provide the entity “a unique structural position as the only company operating two synergistic businesses across official sports data and media and advertising.”
Genius Sports CEO, Mark Locke, said the deal represents an opportunity to position the company as a fully functioning and comprehensive sports and gaming media network. He said: “For Genius Sports and our global partners, it delivers more data, more audience, more inventory and greater monetisation of sports fans,
“The acquisition of Legend will drive higher margins and stronger free cash flow, positioning Genius Sports to immediately transform the market and grow the size and scale of our business.”
Legend founder Nick Kisberg believes the partnership with Genius Sports makes sense, adding that it: “brings together two world-class teams, unlocks unparalleled growth opportunities for our partners and products and gives us an even stronger platform to scale. I am immensely proud of what we have built and the decades of hard work that have brought us here today.”
Genius Sports is a sports data and technology company that supplies official real-time data, analytics, and fan engagement tools to sportsbooks, leagues, and media partners worldwide.
Legend, meanwhile, operates a network of owned and operated websites and uses proprietary marketing technology to distribute sports and betting content across major publishers, including Sports Illustrated and Yahoo Sports, connecting fans with sportsbooks and gaming advertisers at moments of high intent.
Revised market guidance from Genius Sports
The scale of the collaboration has led Genius Sports to update its financial outlook. It estimates the deal underpins Genius Sports forecast of maintaining at least a 20% group revenue CAGR through 2028.
The company also reported strong preliminary FY25 results, with revenue rising 31% year-on-year to $669 million and adjusted EBITDA climbing 59% to $136 million.
Looking ahead, Genius has raised its 2026 outlook, saying the Legend deal positions the group to generate around $1.1 billion in revenue and $320–330 million in adjusted EBITDA. The transaction also lifts long-term expectations, with group revenue forecast to reach $1.6 billion by 2028, implying a CAGR of roughly 21% from 2026.
Despite the announcement, shares in Genius Sports plunged 26.5%, with market concerns revolving around the acquisition’s high cost, calling into question debt financing and profitability. .
The $GENI stock has been on a negative yearly trend. In the past 12 months, it has spiraled 34%, at the time of writing.
Hopes that deal offsets prediction market threat
Investors in Genius Sports have been apparently grappling with the emerging threat of prediction markets, which have surged in popularity in recent months.
A news article by Yahoo Finance in October last year reported how Genius Sports shares slid alongside other sports-betting stocks as investors sold off positions following Kalshi’s rollout of a parlay-style product ahead of two football matchups.
Kalshi’s “build your combo” feature allows users to combine multiple contracts within a single game, prompting broader market jitters across the sector.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recently withdrew a proposal to ban sports and political prediction markets in a move received positively by that sector. However, the partnership between Genius Sports and Legend is a bullish sign of confidence from the regulated betting sector.
Acquisition one of the biggest of its kind
The acquisition is an outlier in terms of size for the sports betting media and content industry when analyzing it against comparable deals.
The $1.2 billion valuation comprises $900 million as upfront consideration, of which $800 million is in cash, and a further $100 million in stock consideration.
A 10-year $2 billion deal between PENN Entertainment and ESPN, announced back in 2023 was a greater financial outlay, but that partnership has since been mutually dissolved. No other sports betting media deal comes close.
Some analysts believe the Legend acquisition represents a bold and expensive bet on vertical integration at a time when the sports betting ecosystem is under pressure from new competitors, tightening margins, and shifting regulation.
While the near-term market reaction has been punishing, Genius Sports is clearly signaling that scale, proprietary data, and direct access to high-intent audiences will be central to defending its position as the industry evolves. Whether that strategy justifies the price paid is likely to remain a key question for investors well beyond 2026.
