Mark Locke, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Genius Sports, has defended leadership’s acquisition of sports media and technology business Legend after a ‘divided response’ to the takeover from the markets.
Earlier this month, Genius paid a whopping $1.2bn to acquire Legend, a deal that sees it expand its sports media service and enter the iGaming/betting affiliate space. Genius states that it has acquired the global leader in content syndication for sports and gaming.
The markets did not react with the same excitement, however. The company’s shares fell 27% in the aftermath of the announcement, wiping a reported circa $600-$700m of corporate value on the NYSE.
Across the board, city analysts have been divided on the acquisition, but all agree that Legend is a transformative asset dependent on the integration with Genius’ tech stack and the rapid development of new media services expanding beyond igaming disciplines.
In Locke’s view, some observers have been labelling Legend the wrong type of business – focusing just on its status as an affiliate. In all fairness, the business does run extensive fan engagement and traffic driving platforms, but its business goes far beyond the traditional affiliate model.
“The market’s reaction to our acquisition of Legend has been divided. That has happened before when we made transformative deals,” Locke wrote.
“Much of the criticism has relied on a reductive use of the word “affiliate”, he continued. “The term has been applied as shorthand, without distinguishing between low-quality traffic brokers and technology platforms built on owned audiences and behavioral intelligence.
“Booking.com earns commissions on travel revenue. No one would call it a simple affiliate business because it clearly owns consistent demand. The principle is the same here. The question is not the revenue model, it is whether we own the audience, the data and the participation layer. We do.
“Viewed through a traditional affiliate framework, the focus remains on publisher risk and performance marketing multiples. Viewed through an infrastructure lens, the focus shifts to control of intent, first-party data and integrated distribution.”
Genius has overcome before
Genius is no stranger to acquisition, as Locke wrote to shareholders today. Back in 2021, the firm acquired Second Spectrum, the data and analytics trading partner of the Premier League, NFL and Major League Soccer (MLS).
Locke asserted that the economics of this deal were questioned, and yet Genius has gone from strength to strength ever since. He also asserted that the economics of Genius’ partnerships with the likes of the NFL faced some scrutiny.
“When we entered official data rights agreements, the economics were questioned,” he said. “When we signed our long-term partnership with the NFL, many doubted the scale and sustainability of the opportunity.
“When we acquired Second Spectrum, there were similar concerns about commercial application. In each case, our thesis was rooted in structural change rather than short-term convention. Over time, execution clarified what the strategy already anticipated.”
The difference between the Second Spectrum takeover and the NFL deal on one hand the Legend acquisition on the other lies in the scale of the share drop off in the aftermath of the latter.
Shares in Genius peaked in May 2021 – the year in which both of the aforementioned deals were agreed and completed. Shares hit a max price of $24.93 on 27 May 2021, 21 days after the Second Spectrum deal was announced. This is a far cry from the impact seen after the Legend M&A.
Since announcement of the Legend buyout, Genius’ shares have been recovering – nowhere near the peaks of 2021, admittedly, though the firm’s shares had not been at that level for some time before the acquisition anyway.
Genius is now working to ease the doubts around the Legend takeover, which has shaken the business market performance in ways the NFL deal and Second Spectrum M&A didn’t come close to. Again, it seems that the main observation Genius has taken offence to is the description of Legend as an affiliate.
“Traditional “affiliate” businesses often rely heavily on search engines. If search visibility changes, their traffic can disappear,” Locke said. Genius’ CEO also took aim at the idea that AI will make content and fan engagement houses like Legend obsolete.
“AI makes this more valuable, not less. LLMs commoditize information retrieval. That is precisely why owning the environments where 118 million users repeatedly choose to participate, and the behavioral data those interactions generate becomes a structural advantage. Generic answers are free. Proprietary intent signals inside owned environments are not.
“In fact, advances in AI strengthen this model. Better prediction, deeper personalization and faster adaptation make participation more relevant and commercial outcomes more efficient.
“Reducing this to a generic “affiliate” label misses the point.”
Data is the new asset class
Magnifying Genius’ future valuation, Locke believes that the NYSE firm has to double down on ‘sports infrastructure’ as a new asset class.
The demand stems from partnerships formed in 2026 with advertising and marketing giants of WPP and Publicis Groupe, who are investing in dedicated sports agencies built around data-led activation and measurable performance.
For mass-market brands, a strategic shift now sees them prioritise data-driven audience activation and sustained engagement over traditional sponsorship visibility.
This structural pivot towards measurable participation is being witnessed across all sports stakeholders — agencies, media owners, technology platforms and gambling operators> Major advertisers in Sports will partner with those that can guarantee scale, accuracy and performance of marketing spend gaining strategic advantage.
“Sport is evolving into a standalone data-driven asset class, and infrastructure is what underpins asset classes. As more capital flows into sport from brands, media platforms and betting operators seeking measurable return, the companies that control real-time data, distribution and activation will command disproportionate value. We intend to be at the centre of that ecosystem.”
Shortly after the Genius announced its takeover of Legend, an analyst from Citizens bank told SBC that describing Legend as merely an affiliate was a severe underestimation of what exactly this business is.
Genius is now attempting to make that point itself to ease market concerns. Though NYSE trading has not long started at the time of writing, Locke’s letter may be working – the firm’s share price is marginally up by 0.19% to just under $6 and climbing.
The next step will be translating words into actions, and proving what Legend has brought to the company once integration is complete…