Sept 27 (Reuters) – Endeavor Group Holdings Inc (EDR.N), the owner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, will buy sports betting firm OpenBet from Scientific Games Corp (SGMS.O) for $1.2 billion in cash and stock, the companies said on Monday.

Endeavor, whose shares were up nearly 9% in extended trading, said the acquisition will strengthen its position in the sports betting industry. It comes at a time when the online gambling space has been seeing frenetic dealmaking.

Last week, British gambling firm Entain (ENT.L) said it had received a takeover proposal from U.S. fantasy sports betting company DraftKings (DKNG.O), valuing it at $22.4 billion. read more

Demand for online betting has boomed during the pandemic as customers took to playing from home when casinos and betting shops were off-limits.

The OpenBet deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022, will be financed through $1 billion in cash and $200 million worth of Endeavor’s Class A common stock, the companies said.

Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Vinay Dwivedi

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