Sportradar has priced its IPO, giving the company a $7.4 billion valuation at the low end; that would make founder and CEO Carsten Koerl a multibillionaire.

It’s been a tumultuous 18 months for sports data company Sportradar Group AG. Not only was its business threatened by a global pandemic that ground the sports world to a halt, but a proposed $10 billion SPAC deal to take the company public fell through—all while rival Genius Sports lured away the NFL as a partner. Now, as Switzerland-based Sportradar prepares to go public on the Nasdaq, founder and CEO Carsten Koerl is finally seeing a bright spot, as he will likely emerge as a new billionaire.

Sportradar helps leagues compile data, such as in-game statistics, and distribute it to clients like media companies and betting operators. Sports gambling has become an especially strong growth opportunity, following legalization by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018. If sports betting becomes operational in all 50 states—it currently is in 26 and Washington, D.C.—the U.S. market alone could exceed $19 billion annually. According to a report by research firm Technavio, the value of the global sports gambling market is expected to expand by more than $140 billion between 2020 and 2025.

In an updated prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, Sportradar reported that it plans to sell 19 million shares, as well as an additional 2.85 million held under option, at a price of $25 to $28 in its initial public offering. On the low end of its pricing, the 20-year-old company could raise $546 million, valuing it at $7.4 billion. Sportradar also plans to sell a $159 million stake to an investment group headed by Los Angeles Dodgers part owner Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries (Earlier this year, Boehly tried to buy into Sportradar through a SPAC). 

While Boehly and other minority investors like basketball legend and Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis stand to gain from Sportradar’s arrival on the public markets, the biggest individual winner here is company founder Koerl. Conservatively, Koerl’s 31.8% stake in Sportradar could be worth roughly $2.3 billion, Forbes estimates. A spokesperson for Sportradar declined to comment.

A native of Allgäu, a mountainous region in southern Germany, Koerl—now 56— reportedly had a fascination with sports throughout childhood, harboring ambitions of competing in downhill skiing or professional tennis. However, according to a 2018 article in The Globe and Mail, he pivoted to computer engineering when he realized a future in athletics was unlikely. Koerl studied electronic and microprocessor engineering at the University for Applied Sciences in Konstanz, Germany and held several management roles in the software and gaming industries before founding online gambling company bwin (then called betandwin) in 1997. He took the company public on the Austrian Stock Exchange in March 2000.

In 2001, Koerl formed Sportradar by buying 51% of a nascent Norwegian sports betting odds and data company called Market Monitor AS. It has since expanded globally, including into the U.S. in 2014. In 2018, Silicon Valley investment firm TCV and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board teamed up to buy a reported 37% stake in Sportradar, valuing the company at $2.5 billion including debt. According to the company’s prospectus, Sportradar posted a nearly $18 million net profit on $478 million in revenue last year.

Despite losing the NFL’s data rights license to rival Genius Sports earlier this year (the NFL still retains an equity stake of less than 5% in Sportradar as part of an earlier agreement), Sportradar has established partnerships with the NBA, MLB, NHL and Nascar, among others (the NHL also received equity options for Sportradar’s IPO as part of its deal, according to Sportico). Some of Sportradar’s media and gambling clients include Facebook, Google, FanDuel, DraftKings and William Hill, and it also provides services for notable organizations such as the Union of European Football Associations (known as UEFA) and the German Bundesliga.

When Sportradar debuts on the Nasdaq, it’ll complete a strenuous journey to the public markets. In March, the company had a deal in place to merge with Horizon II, a SPAC owned by Boehly, which would have valued Sportradar at $10 billion. After a delay in bridge financing caused the deal to fall through, Sportradar changed course and filed for a traditional IPO in August. It will trade under the ticker “SRAD.”