Sports media comes into the investing fold once again with Score Media and Gaming’s (NASDAQ:SCR) new announcement. The company is being absorbed into one of the largest casino and race-betting operators in the nation, and the acquisition brings it one degree closer to the increasingly present Barstool Media network. As a result of the news, SCR stock is rising rapidly.
Score Media is a Canadian sports-media company, which began as a sports score and news platform. However, in recent years, the company vastly ramped up in popularity thanks to its sports-betting service, theScore Bet. Now, the company will be using its sports-betting innovations to bulk up the products of Penn National Gaming (NASDAQ:PENN).
SCR Stock Gains on News of Penn National Acquisition
This morning, Penn National and Score Media are announcing Penn’s acquisition of Score. Penn, which owns a 36% stake in the increasingly popular sports media network Barstool, is buying Score Media for about $2 billion in both cash and stock.
$1 billion of the acquisition will be paid for in cash by Penn National using cash off its balance sheet. Penn will pay $17 and 0.24 shares of PENN stock for every share of SCR stock owned by shareholders. This will account for the other half of the transaction. According to the press release, the transaction has been unanimously approved by both companies’ boards.
Penn National is very happy with the acquisition. According to remarks, theScore network’s innovation in sports betting will help it build out its own products. “theScore has developed a state-of-the-art player account management system and is finalizing the development of an in-house managed risk and trading service platform,” says Penn CEO Jay Snowden. The company will also be able to avoid third-party platforms for its products.
The news is elevating SCR stock this morning. Shares of the company are up more than 75% in the opening hours of trading. Over 20 million shares of the stock are trading hands so far, well above the daily average volume of just 604,000.
On the date of publication, Brenden Rearick did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
