Olympic Tweet Data Helps Genius Lead Sports Stocks Higher in July

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The Paris Olympics has so far been a bonanza for everyone from broadcasters to event planners. Now add sports data and analytics provider Genius Sports to the list of winners, as its recent deal to provide advertising tools around real-time user data on social media platform X helped rally its stock and lead the Sportico Sports Stock Index higher in July.

Genius shares (GENI) gained more than 25% in July, its best monthly performance in a year. The rally made it one of the best-performing stocks in the benchmark Sportico index and helped pull the index to a 5% gain in the month, besting the S&P 500 Index’s 1.1% move.

While the Olympics are a non-event in Genius’ largest business segment involving sports betting—people don’t bet on sports they see once every four years—Genius has found favor focusing on its fast-growing media technology content and services arm. In July it debuted Trend Genius with X to help advertisers optimize ad timing to users when online activity accelerates and pause ads as user activity lulls. The product is being used around Olympics-related social media content.

“The Trend Genius product is performing incredibly well for advertisers,” said Genius Sports’ chief revenue officer Josh Linforth in an email to Sportico. “We have already seen a 12% increase in engagement across these campaigns on the X platform, and brands are seeing the value of being at the center of the cultural conversation, especially during the excitement of the Olympics.”

As is often the case with stocks, Genius’ strength isn’t just from headline news like its X deal, but from the inside baseball of institutional buying. Specifically, Genius shares have been buoyed by the exit of Apax Partners as a shareholder early in the month. A private equity firm, Apax had acquired most of Genius in 2018 and still held a 28% stake in the business when Genius went public. Mutual funds, who are long-term investors, had been hesitant to buy Genius shares knowing that Apax, with a shorter investment window typical of a PE firm, would one day want to liquidate its holdings, flooding the market with supply and lowering the stock price. Meanwhile, Apax had been waiting for mutual fund buying to boost the stock price before selling, but eventually tired of the game of chicken.

With the supply overhang gone, mutual funds were active buyers of Genius shares in July, according to Charles Scherr, Genius Sports vice president of capital markets and strategic initiatives.

“That was a pretty seminal point for the business, to bring in new institutional shareholders who have been steadily buying shares,” said Scherr in a phone call.

Overall, 30 of the 40 companies in the Sportico Sports Stock Index rose in July, with Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) outpacing Genius’ performance with a 27% gain in the month. Sphere operates the iconic Las Vegas venue as well as regional sports network MSG. Sphere has enjoyed its own support from deep-pocketed investors as billionaire Ken Griffin and Steve Cohen have been building positions. In the first six months of operation, the Sphere venue generated $200 million in revenue and has already spawned a privately held competitor backed by its own sports billionaires, Cosm.

Other big gainers in July include Betway parent Super Group (SGHC, up 23%), which has benefitted from its telegraphed exit from the U.S. sports betting market and its high marketing costs, and streaming bundler Fubo (FUBO, up 18%) which is enjoying viewer demand for the Olympics on the NBC channels owned by its TV bundling competitor, Comcast (CMCSA up 6%).

The 10 sports stocks that posted losses in July were led by Vivid Seats (SEAT) which lost 15% in the month, continuing a bearish trend that is deep in its second year. The ticket reseller has declined 24% in 2024 and 64% since peaking in October 2021. PBA Tour owner and bowling alley operator Bowlero (BOWL, down 11%) and Wilson brand owner Amer Sports (AS, down 8%) were other notable decliners in July. The sports stock index finished July at 1,216, putting it up 6% in 2024 and 22% since its formation in August 2020 at 1,000.

The Sportico Sports Stock Index is a basket of 40 stocks that rely on sports for a significant part of their growth. The index includes sports organizations like Formula One (FWONA, up 15%), video game makers including Electronic Arts (EA, up 8%) and service providers like concessions operator Aramark (ARMK, up 1%). The index is equal weighted, meaning each component starts out at the same value in the index, 2.5%. Sportico rebalances the index four times annually and stocks are dropped and replaced periodically as needed.