Genius Sports has declared a hefty net loss for the first quarter of the year, but this has not deterred group leadership from its lofty expectations for the end of the year.

The London-based, NYSE-listed sportstech published its Q1 financials this afternoon, revealing overall year-over-year revenue growth of 30.5% from $143.9m (£105.6m) to $187.9m.

Group-wide adjusted EBITDA was also up 21.3% from $19.8m to $24m. Despite this, Genius’ march towards profitability has been halted by the $1.2bn acquisition of Legend earlier this year.

Genius declared a group net loss of $55.5m for Q1, up 576.6% from a loss of $8.2m the year prior. The firm directly attributed this to the $1.2bn Legend takeover, alongside foreign currency movements and stock-based compensation – though with all things considered, when a +$1bn cost is factored in this loss is far from world shattering.

However,  Legend takeover has proven a headache for Genius from the start, from a markets perspective at least. The markets did not react as enthusiastically to the takeover of Legend, one of the world’s biggest sports and entertainment digital media platforms, as Genius did – the firm’s share price slipped 23% in the immediate aftermath.

Genius’ leadership, and in all fairness to them a number of independent investment analysts as well, have maintained that this lack of market confidence came from a fundamental misunderstanding of Legend as an affiliate business. Genius and others have argued that it is much more than that.

Legend M&A aside, Genius can take confidence from the fact both its betting and media divisions performed well in Q1. Revenue from the Betting Technology, Content and services division rose 33.3% to $146.2m ($109.7m), while Media Technology, Content and Services revenue rose 22.7% to $41.7m ($34.3m).

Mark Locke, founder and Chief Executive Officer, said: “Our first quarter results underscore the durability and visibility of our business model, with strong revenue growth across both Betting and Media driven by long-term contracts, expanding customer relationships, and delivery of new products across the global sports and betting ecosystem.”

A Legend-ary role of the dice for Genius?

Genius’ share price still remains far lower than it was prior to the Legend acquisition. In fact, last month, its market cap fell to below the valuation of the Legend takeover for the first time in early April and hit a low of $1.01bn on 10 April, nearly $200m below the acquisition.

As of market close yesterday, the firm’s shares stood at $4.40 per share, down from just over the $11 it stood at on 31 December 2025, 33 days prior to the Legend acquisition announcement.

Nonetheless, Genius maintains that the Legend deal will reap dividends for its business. Leadership reiterated the expectation of group revenue between $990m-$1bn and AEBITDA between $270m-$280m by the end of 2026.

The firm also expects Q2 revenue of $185m and EBITDA of $45m following the completion of the Legend takeover on 1 May 2026.

“With the acquisition of Legend now complete, we are expanding our platform deeper into fan engagement and participation, creating new opportunities across sports, media and iGaming,” Locke concluded.

“The combination strengthens our long-term growth profile, enhances monetization across our ecosystem, and is expected to drive meaningful margin expansion and cash flow over time.”