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While a buoyant Better Collective carries on with its buying spree , erstwhile rival Catena Media continues to rid itself of its European assets . But one company ’ s trash is another ’ s treasure as iGB Affiliate Monitor author Scott Longley reports
O ne of the most significant features of the affiliate space within the past year or more has been the M & A activity that has taken place , particularly among the biggest listed players . Looking at the data provided by Citizens Bank going back to May 2022 , it lists 27 deals involving 13 separate buyers .
Within that list , there are two obvious trends that help explain a lot of what has happened within the space and give broad hints as to what the sector might look like as we head into 2024 .
Most obviously , and certainly hogging the headlines in the latter half of this year , the continued rise of Better Collective and its increasing dominance of the affiliate space is hard to miss .
Of those 27 deals since May 2022 , seven involved the sector behemoth with one of these , the deal for Playmaker , also accounting for four more transactions which it completed over the period .
That last deal , coming in at $ 189m (£ 150.5m /€ 175.8m ), was the second largest that Better Collective has completed and once again emphasised how the affiliate is now not just the predominant gaming affiliate but also , per its strategic aim , an increasingly important sports media player .
Talking about the deal on the company ’ s third-quarter earnings call , chief executive Jesper Søgaard said the company was “ well underway ” with this transformation . “ We have proven that we can make better businesses out of the many digital platforms we have acquired over the years that cater to large audiences of sports fans and further improve the quality of the content for our millions of daily visitors ,” he explained .
iGB AFFILIATE LONDON 2024 • ISSUE 94 • 53