Inside the Crazy World of Sports Gambling: Term Sheet for April 10

PLACE MY BET

$8.5 billion. That’s how much Americans will spend betting on college basketball games during March Madness.

Why is this important? This was the first NCAA Tournament since the Supreme Court’s landmark decision last May to overturn the federal ban on sports betting, which for decades had largely restricted the activity to the casinos and sports books of Nevada. In other words, bettors in seven states that have subsequently legalized sports gambling haven’t had to resort to under-the-table wagers — or a trip to Las Vegas — to get in on the action.

I covered the sports betting news last year through the lens of what the ruling meant for daily fantasy sports companies such as FanDuel and DraftKings. In a feature published this morning, Coins2Day’s Rey Mashayekhi zooms out to provide a bigger picture of the industry.

He reports:

According to the AGA, Americans illegally wager more than $150 billion on sports every year, whether through offshore betting sites or illegal bookmakers. With that kind of money potentially up for grabs via legitimate means, it’s no surprise that there’s a debate currently taking place about what the future of the fledgling, legal sports betting industry should look like. Beyond the leagues themselves, there are numerous stakeholders to account for, each with their own objectives.

There are the casino operators that hold significant influence at the state level, where legislators are crafting the nation’s sports betting regulations. There are mobile betting operators like DraftKings and FanDuel, whose digital platforms are widely considered to be the future of the industry. And, of course, there are the sports teams themselves, many of which are either preparing to, or already taking advantage of, the commercial and fan engagement opportunities allowed by sports betting.

Through interviews with more than a dozen people from these various groups, there is a clear sentiment that all parties have a shared, mutual interest in a successful legal sports betting industry in the U.S. But that’s not to say there aren’t disagreements, currently playing out across the country on a state-by-state basis, regarding issues that could shape the future of sports gambling in America for decades to come.

Read the full feature here.

PUT A PIN IN IT: The three Pinterest founders are expected to become millionaires after the company goes public later this month—and some early investors are also poised to profit. But not everyone.

On Monday, Pinterest revealed that shares would likely be priced between $15 to $17 apiece—valuing Pinterest at as much as $11.3 billion. An impressive figure—but not for those that bought into the company in 2017 at a $12.3 billion valuation.

My colleague Lucinda Shen dug into Pinterest’s IPO filing to see who’s making money & who’s … not. Some investors including Goldman Sachs, Kleiner Perkins, the Vanguard Group, and John Hancock Investments first acquired their stakes in the online pin-board maker during the Series G and Series H funding rounds—at a time when shares were valued at $21.54 each, according to filings. If the IPO prices at the upper end of the range, that would still be 25.7% below what those firms paid, according to SEC filings and investor information from PitchBook.

See her full report here.

...AND MORE NEWS FROM IPO-LAND

Uber goes on the road: Ride-hailing company Uber will kick off its much-anticipated road show to market shares to potential investors this month and would begin trading publicly in May. Uber is reportedly seeking to raise about $10 billion. Its offering is expected to be the largest U.S. IPO this year and among the 10 largest of all time.

Slack is looking real attractive: Before Slack goes public via a direct listing, investors are paying big premiums for shares of the workplace software maker on private markets. Investors are buying stock in some cases for more than double the price of Slack’s last fundraising round in August, which valued the company at $7.1 billion, according to Bloomberg. Shareholders have sold stock to private buyers in the last two months at prices as high as $25 or $26 a share, which implies a company valuation of about $16 billion.

PagerDuty aims higher: PagerDuty, a San Francisco-based operations and analytics platform maker, raised its IPO price range Tuesday to $21 to $23 per share, up $2 from the figures it had originally reported when it filed to go public. At the high end of this range, the company would boast a market cap of $1.69 billion. The company was last valued at $1.3 billion after raising $90 million in Series D funding from investors including T. Rowe Price Associates, Wellington Management. Accel, Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners.

VENTURE DEALS

• Expanse, a San Francisco-based internet information technology operations management platform, raised $70 million in Series C funding. TPG Growth led the round.

• Candid, a direct-to-consumer brand focused on oral health care, raised $63.4 million in Series B funding. Investors include Greycroft, Bessemer, e.ventures, RiverPark Funds, blisce/, Redesign Health’s limited partners, and Mousse Partners.

• ShopBack, a Singapore-based startup that offers cashback and consumer rewards in Asia Pacific, raised $45 million in funding. Rakuten Capital and EV Growth co-led the round.

• Movo, a Spain-based micro-mobility startup has closed a €20 million ($22.5 million) in Series A funding. Mutua Madrileña and Seaya Ventures co-led the round.

• Tibit Communications Inc, a Petaluma, Calif.-based developer of access devices for passive optical networking, raised $20 million in Series B funding. Intel Capital led the round.

• Make School, a San Francisco-based college offering degree programs developed in partnership with tech companies, raised $15 million in Series B funding. Venrock led the round.

• Jebbit, a Boston-based declared data platform, raised $12 million in Series B funding. K1 Investment Management led the round, and was joined by investors including Manifest and Yard Ventures.

• Labelbox, a collaborative training data platform for machine learning applications, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Gradient Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Kleiner Perkins, First Round Capital, and Sumon Sadhu.

• Tempest, a digital-based sobriety school, raised 4.3 million in Series A funding round. Investors include Female Founders Fund, Slow Ventures, Refactor Capital and Red Light Management.

• Buckzy Payments, a Canada-based fintech company, raised $1.75 million in seed funding. Mistral Venture Partners led the round, and was joined by investors including Revel Partners.

HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES DEALS

• Scout Bio, a biotechnology company focused on pet medicine, raised $20 million in Series B funding. Digitalis Ventures’ Companion Fund and RiverVest Venture Partners co-led the round, and were joined by investors including GreenSpring Associates, Frazier Healthcare Partners, Adage Capital Management and Correlation Ventures.

• Noveome Biotherapeutics Inc, a Pittsburgh-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, raised $15 million in Series D financing. The company’s investors included U.S. Department of Defense and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Allegheny County.

PRIVATE EQUITY DEALS

• Deutsche Börse AG agreed to buy Axioma, a New York-based provider of portfolio and risk management software solutions, for $850 million. Deutsche Börse plans to combine the company with its index business. General Atlantic is investing $715 million. Deutsche Borse will have 78% of company, while GA will have 19% and Axioma management will have 3%.

• Symphony Technology Group acquired a 70% stake in RedSeal, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based cybersecurity company, in a deal worth about $70 million.

• Syndigo, a portfolio company of The Jordan Company, acquired Content Analytics, a San Francisco-based provider of content management and analytics to the consumer-retail and ecommerce industries. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

• Stanadyne LLC, a portfolio company of Kohlberg & Company, acquired Pure Power, a Columbia, S.C.-based maker of OEM and aftermarket diesel fuel injectors, turbochargers and EGR valves for commercial and off-road vehicles. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

• Behrman Capital acquired Waterline Renewal Technologies, Inc, which is a division of Triwater Holdings. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

OTHER DEALS

• Vista Global acquired JetSmarter, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based private jet marketplace. Financial terms weren't disclosed. As part of the transaction, all JetSmarter investors, including Clearlake Capital and Jefferies Financial Group, will become investors in Vista Global.

IPOs

• Brigham Minerals, an Austin-based oil and gas firm, plans to raise $223 million in an IPO of 13.5 million shares priced between $15 to $18 apiece. Warburg Pincus backs the firm. Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs are underwriters.It plans to list on the NYSE as “MNRL.” Read more.

• Network International, a Dubai-based digital payments firm, is valued at over £2.6 billion after an IPO in London. General Atlantic, Emirates NBD, and Warburg Pincus sold roughly £1.1 billion in shares. Read more.

• NetworkQSR Brands, Malaysia’s largest fast-food operator, reportedly paused plans for a $500 million IPO. Read more.

• Frequentis, a Vienna-based firm dealing with communications, plans to list in Germany and Austria. Read more.

EXITS

• YieldStreet acquired Athena Art Finance Corp, a New York-based provider of loans for the global art market, from The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) and co-investors in a transaction valued at approximately $170 million.

• The Stagwell Group acquired MultiView, a B2B digital marketer. The seller was Warburg Pincus. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

FIRMS + FUNDS

• Energy Spectrum Partners, a Dallas, Texas-based private equity firm, raised more than $867 million for its eighth fund, according to an SEC filing. The fund’s target is $1.3 billion.

• Fifth Wall Ventures, a Venice, Calif.-based venture capital firm, raised more than $468 million for its second fund, according to an SEC filing. The target is $500 million.

• Defy Partners, a Woodside, Calif.-based venture capital firm, raised $262 million for its second fund.

• LiveOak Venture Partners, an Austin, Texas-based venture capital firm, raised $105 million for its second fund.