Enhanced Group, the NYSE-listed owner of the Enhanced Games, has agreed to acquire a controlling stake of approximately 77% in Berlin-headquartered live entertainment and ticketing company DEAG.
The all-stock deal, announced on Thursday (November 5), values 100% of DEAG’s equity at approximately USD $115 million, according to Enhanced.
DEAG stages more than 6,000 live events a year and sells tickets through platforms including myticket.de and gigantic.com. Its revenues rose around 33% to €490.0 million in 2025, although DEAG expects 2026 revenues to come in below that level, at more than €400 million.
DEAG‘s festival portfolio includes electronic music festivals Airbeat One and NATURE ONE, rock and metal festival ROCKHARZ, and Dortmund’s Juicy Beats in Germany, as well as Sion sous les Étoiles in Switzerland and Barcelona Rock Fest in Spain.
DEAG‘s UK businesses include promoter Kilimanjaro Live and Scotland’s Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival. In 2021, through Kilimanjaro, DEAG acquired a 90% stake in promoter UK Live, which runs the 1980s-themed Let’s Rock festival series.
Enhanced, which describes itself as a sports, entertainment, and performance products company, began trading on the NYSE in May after completing a merger with special purpose acquisition company A Paradise Acquisition Corp.
Enhanced runs the Enhanced Games, a swimming, track, and weightlifting competition that allows athletes to use performance-enhancing substances. The Games debuted in Las Vegas later that month.
Enhanced also sells telehealth services and supplements through its Live Enhanced platform. It reported a net loss of $61.9 million on revenues of $17.7 million in the second quarter, driven largely by the cost of staging the Games.
Enhanced‘s market capitalization stood at approximately $97.3 million at its closing price of $7.11 on Wednesday (November 4), according to its investor presentation.
Among the sellers is Apeiron Investment Group, the family office of Enhanced Co-Founder and Chairman Christian Angermayer and Enhanced’s controlling stockholder. Its position on both sides of the deal makes it a related-party transaction.
Enhanced will issue approximately 11 million new Class A shares at $8 apiece, a premium of approximately 13% to Wednesday’s close. The agreed value is €4.00 per DEAG share, with no cash consideration.
At Wednesday’s closing price, the share consideration would instead value 100% of DEAG at around $102 million, by MBW‘s calculation.
Enhanced says the deal positions it for “the flip side of AI,” arguing that as automation frees up people’s time, more of it will be spent at in-person events.
“I believe one of the most significant long-term consequences of AI and robotics will be a gradual reduction in the need for human labor,” said Maximilian Martin, Co-Founder and CEO of Enhanced. “And I believe people will mostly allocate this free time to shared, real live human experiences.
“This creates scarcity, as sports and live experiences cannot be automated or replicated by AI. A live game, a concert, a record broken in front of a crowd – all those moments create goosebumps and become more valuable as everything else becomes digitally abundant.
“We believe the winners will be the companies that own the content, the stage and the ticket. With DEAG, Enhanced will have all three: owned sports and live IP, a broad promoter and venue network, and proprietary ticketing. And we believe we are acquiring it at a very attractive valuation.”
A special committee of independent directors negotiated the deal for Enhanced, and the committee’s advisor, Roth Capital Partners, issued a fairness opinion. Enhanced says its controlling stockholder has approved the transaction by written consent, without a vote of other stockholders.
Enhanced has also agreed to amend its governing documents so that holders of a majority of its voting power can remove any director, with or without cause, according to an 8-K filing with the SEC.
“We believe the winners will be the companies that own the content, the stage and the ticket. With DEAG, Enhanced will have all three: owned sports and live IP, a broad promoter and venue network, and proprietary ticketing. And we believe we are acquiring it at a very attractive valuation.”
Maximilian Martin, Enhanced
Enhanced says the price represents 5.3x its own estimate of DEAG’s 2027 adjusted EBITDA, approximately $26.5 million. It compares that with a median of 14.1x for listed peers CTS Eventim (7.7x), Live Nation (14.1x), and TKO Group (15.0x).
Enhanced expects the combined group to generate approximately $670 million in revenues in 2027, of which $603.9 million would come from DEAG.
Enhanced says DEAG has completed more than 30 acquisitions since 2019, including Milan-headquartered promoter MC² Live, which took DEAG into the Italian market.
DEAG delisted from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2021 after a takeover deal with Apeiron, which bid through its Malta-based vehicle, Musai Capital. Its shares still trade on the Hamburg Stock Exchange’s open market, where they were quoted at around €2.40 before news of the deal emerged.
The €4.00 agreed value represents a premium of approximately 67% to that price, by MBW‘s calculation. It also matches the price at which Apeiron agreed in August to subscribe for 2.5 million new DEAG shares, in a capital increase that would take Apeiron and its affiliates above 50%.
DEAG will continue to be run by its existing management, led by incoming CEO Markus Breitenecker, the former Chief Operating Officer of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE.
Enhanced calls the deal “the first step in its own buy-and-build strategy,” and says it may evaluate raising its DEAG stake to as much as 100%.
Alongside the acquisition, Enhanced is raising $15 million through a concurrent PIPE at $7.11 per share, with participation from Apeiron. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027.Music Business Worldwide