Leta’s portfolio company 365Scores was acquired for $160M
Worldwide leading sports results application 365Scores has been recently acquired for $160M by British public company Entain, one of the world’s largest sports betting and gaming groups.
As a Managing Partner at LETA Capital and a board member of 365Scores I am sharing my warm memories about the first meeting with the team and reflect on the company’s success.
For the first time, I visited the 365Scores office in the spring of 2014 when it was located on the second floor right above a bakery. I still remember the smell of fresh pastries. The CEO and one of the founders, Ami, arrived at the meeting on a scooter with the 365Scores logo.
We decided to lead that $5.5M funding round. For that time and at that stage, it was a huge round, and now we see that the company had raised only slightly more throughout its history.
By the way, we have raised the “why” story of this investment to refresh the decision-making process. Now those 9-year-old arguments seem a little naive and old-fashioned. But it is much more important to write why the team succeeded. There are many “whys,” of course, but I will only write about the main one.
The four founders, friends since the army, were extremely motivated to achieve great success. They gave their word to each other not to give up whatever happened and worked as hard as possible during several crises. 365Scores went through mass layoffs during the pandemic, through the toughest hate in social media, and through deals falling apart with strategic investors. Several times, the founders literally pulled the company out of the abyss.
In 2023, the company’s monthly revenue is about 1000x higher than it was in 2014. The office is located above the same bakery and now occupies all three floors of the building, not just two rooms.
And in every room, there is still the same smell of sweet pastries. The CEO and multimillionaire Ami rides to work on a new electric scooter but with the same 365Scores logo.
Over the years of working together, we argued a lot and still managed to become good friends. We went to World Cup matches together and played soccer ourselves, we watched matches with beer in the same office with the smell of pastries. Yes, there was a lot of stuff.
Guys, thank you for everything! 365Scores has awesome founders and the best team! The company is now looking forward to further growth as part of a big British family.
And please, don’t ask in the comments “why” we decided to invest after all. Or maybe because of our shared love of football with the founders?…. :)
The cross-media platform of 365Scores has served over 40 million sports fans around the world since 2012. It provides the fastest and the most accurate live scores updates online and offers coverage of 10 different sports and more than 2,000 competitions across the world.
365Scores started with four founders, who have remained together and still work in the company they founded: CEO Ami Serkis, CTO Roei Aharoni, CRO Yevgeny Brener, and VP of Research and Development Roy Hayumi.
LETA Capital was a lead investor in 365Scores’ $5.5 million round in 2014 from its first fund LETA Capital Fund I. As of 2023, the fund’s DPI (cash-on-cash value of distributions) is 2.5x with 0.5x to 0.7x RVPI (the net asset value of a fund’s remaining). Currently, the first fund’s IRR is 24%.
“The combination of 365scores’ deep expertise in data-driven sports media content alongside Entain’s global scale and market leading platform capabilities will provide customers with a broader offering of interactive content and experiences,” Entain commented on the deal.
