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Sports Tech Market 2025: Landmark Year for Sports Tech - $200B deal value across 1,000+ deals; M&A deal value up over 100%
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29 Jan 2026
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With $200B in total announced deal value across 1,000+ deals, 2025 was an unprecedented deal making year in sports Tech with a wave of mega-mergers, capped by a record $14.3B in sports tech private financings.
The year featured five $1B+ acquisitions, 23 private financings exceeding $100M, and $12B+ of new funds being raised for sports acquisitions and investments. Record activity across M&A, financing, and public activity signals strong capital deployment and dealmaking momentum within the sports tech ecosystem heading into 2026.
Mohit Pareek, CFA, Partner at Drake Star noted: “2025 was a banner year for sports, blending on-field drama with an off-field M&A frenzy and record investments as unprecedented team valuations (Lakers $10B, Celtics $6.1B), blockbuster media rights (NBA $76B/11 years), and continued flow of institutional capital (20+ NBA minority stakes) signaled powerful, sustained momentum. 2026 has already started on a great note with KKR acquiring Arctos Sports and Bruin Capital’s new $1B fund led by 26North and TJC.”
Our Global Sports Tech Market 2025 Update dives into annual / Q4 deals and fundraising activity, buyers and investors to watch, key headlines in the sector, institutional funds raised, public market valuations, and our outlook for 2026.
Key findings include:
- With $156B in disclosed deal value over 450 M&A deals, 2025 represented a record year for M&A activity which grew by 117% compared to 2024 levels.
- Notable M&A deals include Netflix’s $82.7B acquisition offer for the Streaming and Studios division of Warner Bros Discovery, Saudi PIF and Silver Lake’s $55B acquisition of EA, Allwyn/ PrizePicks, Goldman Sachs / Excel Sports and PlayHQ/Alpine Investors.
- A record $14.3B was raised across 500 private placements, led by DAZN’s $2.4B financing (across 3 rounds), with additional landmark raises in Polymarket ($2.2B over 2 rounds), Mari ($2B), Kalshi ($1.5B across 3 rounds), Oura ($900M), NEP Group ($700M), CR Fitness ($350M) and Teamworks ($235M).
- While the number of financings declined versus last year, aggregate deal value more than doubled, underscoring growing investor conviction in larger bets on sports tech.
- Early-stage financings still represented 82% of total deals, but mid- to late-stage activity inflected sharply with 23 raises of $100M+ (a four-year high), led by Wearables & Performance Enhancements and Fan Engagement / Experience in deal count, and by Fantasy, Esports & Betting in capital raised.
- Top investors included Bolt Ventures and Accelerate Ventures across early to late rounds, with Alumni Ventures, Old Tom, Apex Capital, and Courtside VC leading the seed stage.
- With $12B in new funds raised, sports tech remained a magnet for capital, with nearly double the new money for sports and media strategies versus 2024.
- Public markets IPOs re-opened with Comcast listing Versant as a separate entity and StubHub’s $800M IPO, alongside a broad wave of debt refinancings.
Outlook:
- M&A poised for further acceleration as both strategics as well as financial buyers (through platform and add-on acquisitions) are very active in the market, and we expect a continued flurry of mega deals and increase in consolidation.
- PE involvement to strengthen with institutional capital finding sports and sports adjacent verticals as strong acquisition opportunities.
- Strategics continue to be highly acquisitive and making big moves as evident in the shifting media landscape (Warner/Netflix, EA/PIF). Strategics will further capitalize on an increasingly favorable regulatory climate as the valuation expectation gaps narrows and the cost of capital continues to decline.
- Continued strong wave of consolidation in Youth sports, performance analytics, prediction markets, and institutionalization and increased regulatory clarity surrounding US college sports following the House v. NCAA settlement will attract more investors.
- Expect more mid‑ to late‑stage financing rounds while early stage to still make a large chunk of total deals. AI, college sports/NIL, performance analytics, emerging leagues, and fan engagement will remain the prime hunting grounds.
- On the macro side, improving sentiment, cheaper debt, and a reopening IPO window should set the stage for additional IPO‑ready sports tech names to test the public markets.
Download our report below for more detailed insights into the Sports Tech sector.
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Enquiries
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For further enquiries, please contact:
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Gregory Bedrosian
Managing Partner & CEO, Member of the Executive Committee
Consumer & Retail Tech
Digital Media
Digital Services
New York
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Eric Ward
Managing Partner
Consumer & Retail Tech
Digital Media
Software/SaaS
London
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Michael Metzger
Managing Partner
Digital Media
FinTech
Los Angeles
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Mohit Pareek
Partner
Digital Media
FinTech
Los Angeles
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