Sports betting company Fanatics raises $700 million in latest round

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Sports betting company Fanatics raises $700 million in latest round

Fanatics received around $700 million from a group of new and current investors in a round that values the firm at $31 billion.

The Walll Street Journal said the investment's proceeds will be set aside for strategic M&A.

The round was priced and managed by Clearlake Capital, a new investor. Silverlake, Fidelity and Softbank are among the investors who are currently investing in the latest round.

The funds will be used to support Fanatics development across its divisions, including its soon-to-be-launched sports betting and gaming company.

The company intends to conduct an IPO in the future, but will wait until some of its newest business lines are established.

Fanatics Collectibles, a division of the company that includes a trading card business, kicked off last year, as well as a smaller division that offers sports-related nonfungible token, or NFTs.

The division is on track to generate around $1 billion in sales this year, a figure that is expected to rise as more of its exclusive trading card deals with players' unions and leagues such as the NBA and the NFL come into effect over the next few years.

The sports betting operation of Fanatics will start in the spring of 2023 and will be in more than 15 states before the start of the next football season, according to CEO Michael Rubin.

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Fanatics would compete with Penn Entertainment PENN, DraftKings Inc DKNG and Flutter Entmt ADR PDYPY.

Fanatics was a valued of $27 billion at the time. The company raised $1.5 billion in March, which was managed by Fidelity, Blackrock and MSD Partners.