FEATURE
‘ EXPECT MORE DEALS’: IT’ S M & A ALL THE WAY FOR AFFILIATES
When iGB Affiliate last wrote about the trend toward consolidation among affiliates in May, we said it showed no signs of abating and indeed so it has proved with some headline-grabbing deals having been completed in the intervening months. By Scott Longley.
PROMINENT AMONG RECENT
DEALS by the firms spearheading the consolidation drive in the igaming affiliate space are three more from Catena Media.
In late May the Stockholm-listed firm announced a deal to buy Newcasinos for a total potential price of € 11.9m. Following on from that— and after confirming it had raised a further € 50m through a bond issue in June— it added the Delilah Holdings affiliate assets for a maximum of € 6.45m and then most recently it snapped up the sports betting affiliate Bettingpro and related assets for £ 13.9m(€ 15.7m).
By our count, this makes a total of 22 deals completed in less than three years, making Catena Media the most obvious centrifugal force within the sector( see table below). Notably, since it paid $ 6m for the Right Casino assets in November 2015, the price tags on the deals have been moving upwards. Of the five deals completed this year the average potential sum paid out has been € 11.1m( see Figure 1).
In the affiliate business, as much as in other areas of the online gambling sector, scale counts and Catena isn’ t the only player in the market intent on growing bigger through acquisitions. Also recently making a splash is Better Collective, the Copenhagenbased affiliate business and the company
Figure 1: Catena Media affiliate acquisitions
Acquisition target
Date of acquisition
Total potential fee
Main market
Finix Invest Nov ' 14 $ 6m Scandinavia LJFK Ltd Mar ' 15 Unknown Netherlands Promo6000 Mar ' 15 Unknown Norway Stay Media Jul ' 15 € 2m Sweden Arctic Marketing Aug ' 15 € 0.3m Finland Cornvinus Aug ' 15 € 0.65m UK La Luna Sept ' 15 € 0.45m Netherlands Good Game Sept ' 15 € 1.5m Finland Right Casino Nov ' 15 $ 6m UK Unnamed Italian / Belgium-facing sites Mar ' 16 € 9m Italy / Belgium Wonko Media Mar ' 16 SEK32m Sweden Ask Gamblers Apr ' 16 € 15m UK German-facing network June ' 16 € 6.5m Germany Spelbloggare. se Jul ' 16 € 5m Sweden SBAT Oct ' 16 € 13.5m UK CasinoUK Nov ' 16 € 10.6m UK PlayNJ Dec ' 16 $ 45m US Slotsia Feb ' 17 € 8.5m Sweden Online Media( UK) Ltd May-17 £ 11.7m(€ 13.2m) UK Newcasinos. com May-17 € 11.9m Sweden / Norway Delilah Holdings Jun-17 € 6.45 Germany Bettingpro. com Jul-17 £ 13.9m(€ 15.7m) UK / Australia
34 iGB Affiliate Issue 64 AUG / SEP 2017