SBTech

SBTech was founded in 2007 by Israeli entrepreneur Shalom Meckenzie, who served as a director until May 2014. Trading as SBTech (Global) Limited, an Isle of Man registered company with development, trading and commercial offices spread across Bulgaria, Malta, Ukraine, Israel, the UK and the United States, it supplied sportsbook platform technology, managed trading and risk services and a casino package, winning Sportsbook Supplier of the Year at the SBC Awards in 2019 and signing operators including Bet.pt in Portugal (2016) and Czech lottery operator Sazka (2018, extended 2020). On 22-23 December 2019 Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corp., DraftKings Inc. and SBTech (Global) Limited announced a three-way business combination; it closed on 23 April 2020 and the combined company began trading on Nasdaq as DKNG on 24 April 2020 at a valuation of about US$3.3 billion. SBTech shareholders were paid roughly EUR 590 million in cash and new DraftKings Class A stock, and Meckenzie became DraftKings' largest single shareholder with about an 11 percent stake. SBTech became DraftKings' B2B betting and gaming technology division rather than being sold on; DraftKings migrated its own US sportsbook onto an in-house stack in phases from 2022 onward, and has publicly taken a cautious stance on expanding the inherited B2B supply business. In June 2021 short-seller Hindenburg Research published a report alleging SBTech had supplied markets where betting was illegal, which DraftKings disputed.