Footballco Confirms Kooora Acquisition

Digital media company Footballco has agreed to acquire Kooora, a Middle Eastern sports publisher, in an all-cash deal.

The most recent purchase means that London-headquartered Footballco will bolster its strength in football content and complement a portfolio of leading local market football media brands, including Calciomercato (Italy), Voetbalzone (Netherlands), and Spox (Germany).

The acquisition of Koora will see the title join Footballco’s current footprint in the Middle East, which is currently served by seven local editions of Goal.com. The deal more than doubles its audience in the region to 42 million fans, while bringing its monthly global reach to 640 million.

According to Bloomberg, the deal is worth more than $25m (£19m).

CEO of Footballco, Juan Delgado, said, “Kooora will allow us to become the number one player in digital football in that specific market.”

“We’re on a journey to build consumer-driven brands. We want to be the number one choice for soccer news and content worldwide and serve fans not just in the content they read, listen to, or watch, but also in products or experiences that they can ultimately buy.”

Kooora’s founder, Khalid Aldoseri said, “I’m proud to have founded Kooora and to have taken it to this level and I’m excited to see how far it can grow as part of Footballco. Since the day it was launched, we worked hard to build and maintain the pioneering position of Kooora at all levels.

“Setting standards and sustaining them is one challenge that was not subject to any compromise. We look forward to Kooora growing and expanding onto higher realms as part of Footballco, striving to always serve a valuable and precious Arabic-speaking user base of sports fans.”

Footballco is owned by a venture fund backed by U.S.-based private equity firm TPG Capital, which bought the company from DAZN Group in 2020 for over £75m.