Private equity firm Z Capital Group has acquired Sports Information Group, LLC (SIG), the parent company of Daily Racing Form. Terms for the deal, which was closed last week and announced Tuesday, were not disclosed.
“It's an interesting business–it's got a lot of sort of old economy elements to it,” Z Capital Group founder and CEO James Zenni said of DRF in an interview Tuesday on Bloomberg Television. “It's a newspaper, we [at Z Capital Group are] in several different businesses–we sell print publications, about 10 million publications a year. We sell data… we also have an online gaming offering and we also have two smaller divisions called Head2Head Sports and Statfox which are data providers and a fantasy [sports] hosting site. The big opportunity for us [with DRF] is to digitize the print side of the business, which the former owners started to do–it's expensive, but there's still a ways to go to make it fully functional–and then the online gaming offering (DRF Bets), as well.”
Zenni also alluded to the potential for the legalization and expansion of sports gambling in the future as part of what made DRF an attractive investment for his firm.
“I think if you look at the forces at play that would benefit from online gaming… taxing authorities, obviously the [sports] leagues, the franchise owners–those are pretty significant forces,” he said. “In New Jersey, the Supreme Court just said that they're willing to hear the case… to pass online [sports] gaming in New Jersey outside of horse betting.”
John Hartig, Chairman and CEO of SIG, said in a release, “We are thrilled to join the Z Capital family. Z Capital's financial strength, experience, insight and operational expertise will help Daily Racing Form and the Company's other platforms continue to enhance and expand our digital offerings and better serve our loyal readers and customers, while staying true to the publication's rich history and its market-leading brand.”
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