Alibaba and Handnice to invest $1.5m in LeidaSports

Alibaba Group is going to join with Handnice Group (Chinese:恒励集团) to invest in  Chinese digital sports data company LeidaSports (Chinese:雷达体育) for US$1.5 million.

LeidaSports is a company that provides sports data information and betting services. This new move will see it merge with Sports Craze, another Chinese digital application, to supply “sports data and various content to sports content providers” across China.

According to a report on www.ggrasia.com, "data will come via LeidaSports’ existing partnership with sports and betting-related data company Sportradar AG, a multinational corporation with headquarters in St Gallen, Switzerland.”

As Kai Sun, co-founder of LeidaSports, said in a press release: “The two sides will develop rich sporting data and games based on European football and basketball leagues.”

Wang Guozhou, investment manager at Alibaba Group, added in the statement: “We are very proud be part of Leida Group/Sports Craze. Alibaba Group, together with Ali Sports, will set up a strategic partnership with Leida through its subsidiaries such as Alibaba Lottery, U.C. Web and Alipay.”

The report says that Alibaba is also in the process of taking a majority stake in AGTech Holdings Ltd, a Hong Kong-listed operator in the China lottery market.

Source: www.ggrasia.com