Genius Sports raises 2021 revenue forecast on Q1 gains
Group revenue climbs 52% with media, content, and technology business recording significant growth of 127%
Genius Sports has upgraded its full-year 2021 revenue forecast by 35% to $250m-$260m with predicted adjusted EBITDA of between $10m and $20m.
The data provider reported an annual Q1 revenue increase of 52% to $53.7m, aided by a 127% rise in the data provider’s media and content technology offering.
Group adjusted EBITDA rose to $9.3m from $1.8m during the quarter thanks to revenue growth and disciplined cost control in certain areas of the business.
Genius Sports’ betting technology, content, and services business arm accounted for 73% of the overall group revenue during Q1, while its media department made up 17.5% of revenue.
After the period, the group acquired data tracking provider Second Spectrum for $200m and concluded its $1.5bn reverse merger with dMY Technology Group II.
It also announced a six-year strategic partnership with the NFL, through which Genius will be the league’s exclusive distributor of real-time official play-by-play statistics and its official sports betting data feed, which is distributed to media companies and sports betting operators globally.
Mark Locke, Genius Sports CEO, said: “We delivered superb results in the first quarter of 2021, demonstrating our continued excellent momentum and solid execution of strategic commitments.”
Industry analysts Regulus Partners said of the Q1 results: “As with many companies, the significant increase in digital engagement over a short period of time between Q1 20 and Q1 21 has compressed several years of margin improvement into a few quarters (something all sports-led businesses would have loved to have known in Q2 20).
“The key question now is to what extent revenue growth continues to outpace cost growth in the ‘new normal’.
“Like most US-facing business models, Genius will sink or swim on commercial drivers, technical competence, and operational execution – not daydreaming about what the size of the US market might be in five years’ time,” the note read.