Live score Service 365scores Acquired by Entain

Following a very successful 2022, betting group Entain is taking steps to expand its presence and influence across the world of betting and sports services. The owner of popular UK betting sites Ladbrokes and Coral reported “excellent financial, operational, and strategic progress” during 2022. Since the beginning of the year, Entain has already acquired one company. The betting giant has now announced that leading Livescore, stats, and odds service 365scores will join the list of brands owned by the group.

As part of the acquisition, Entain has purchased all of the issued shared capital of 365scores. The agreed value at present is £120m, however further payments of up to £8m have been provisioned for contingencies. The deal is very indicative of Entain’s ambitions and strive to consolidate its reach into the world of sports media. The company issued a statement saying: “The acquisition unlocks further growth opportunities and supports our global strategic ambitions.” It is believed that one of the biggest points of interest for Entain is the way bet365 will integrate with the leading UK betting sites it owns through the merging of interactive content. This is a way for Entain to further diversify its portfolio in order to provide improved customer experience.

365scores has vast experience in the world of sports and is said to be one of the top 5 scores apps worldwide. Entain’s plans are to integrate 365scores and its products and services into its existing betting sites and other operations. This integration will include services provided by 365scores such sports information, scores, and social and editorial content. Further to this, 365scores owns a number of free-to-play games, which will be added to Entain’s portfolio of betting and iGaming products available through its betting sites.

The acquisition means that 365scores becomes the latest addition to Entain’s family of (now) 32 brands which includes popular betting sites and products, media and information services, and other brands related to betting, sports, and iGaming. According to the betting group, 365scores will bring a lot to the table, including “deep expertise in data-driven sports media content” in support of Entain’s “global and scale and market leading platform capabilities”.

365scores is an Israeli company founded in 2012 by former members of the IDF (Israeli Defence Force). The company is based in Tel Aviv, and is estimated to have over 15 million active users across its Android app. Statistics provide that the app has seen over 50 million downloads from Google Play Store. 365scores caters for 10 different sports – football, American football, basketball, rugby, baseball, hockey, tennis, cricket, handball, and volleyball. Across these sports, it offers a large number of information services, including scores, odds, latest results, statistics, live in-game information, historic data, information on where to watch the games, and a comprehensive search feature. All of this will be extremely useful to bettors who want to make or change a bet during a game, or read up and do research on a market prior to betting. It is not yet known what the integration between 365scores and the platforms ran by Entain’s top betting sites in the UK will look like, however it is likely that the group will focus on ease of use, intuitive interface, and customer experience, as the acquisition is all about the attraction, engagement, and retention of bettors.

365scores has not yet released a statement about the acquisition, however it website shows that it prides itself on having served “over 40 million sports fans” since it was founded. A look across its social media platforms shows that the company has a steady following of over 1.6m Facebook users, and a respectable community of 26.4k on Twitter. It has described itself as “the fastest, most accurate online live scores service, serving over 100 million fans worldwide since 2012”.    

As mentioned before, 2023 has been going well for Entain so far. In addition to its betting sites still being some of the most preferred in the UK and globally, this is the second acquisition the company has made recently. The other one was leading eSports betting software and technology company Sportsflare, which Entain acquired from Tidal Holdings last month for £10.7m. Entain is very committed to improving its standing in the world of eSports betting and reaching more bettors by improving and modernising the technology and platform it uses, and enriching its Portfolio.

The acquisition of 365scores is likely to be a huge success for Entain and will potentially continue its period of growth, expansion, and positive economic development, while allowing it to reach a large base of sports fans who will potentially turn into active bettors on Entain’s betting sites. It is likely that the company will also continue with acquiring other successful and promising brands.