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Better Collective A new direction
The gaming affiliate market leader is not content to merely be leaving the rest of the sector behind in its wake , and by some distance now . It is also arguably heading off in a new direction that could , over time , see it forge an entirely new business model .
Not that the acceleration was evident in the fourth quarter as revenues somewhat paused for breath , coming in only slightly down at € 85.2m vs . € 86m in the same period last year while EBITDA fell back 19 % to € 29.9m . The company blamed the fall in profits to the ongoing transition to revenue share in the US .
But on an annual basis , the extent to which the Copenhagenbased firm is pulling away from other gaming affiliate providers comes more clearly into focus .
In 2023 , revenue rose 21 % to € 327m , up from a mere € 88m just five years previously in 2019 . Over the same period , EBITDA – which rose 31 % year-on-year – has moved from € 27m up to € 111m in 2023 .
It is a stratospheric rise and it poses an obvious question – just how much more growth can there be for the company in a sector where there would appear to be potential constraints ?
Chart (€ m ) 5 : Better Collective revenue Q122-Q423 (€ m )
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MEDIA MOVES
Going by the comment from chief executive Jesper Søgaard on the fourth quarter earnings call , it is a dilemma which the company is very much alive to . When talking about the most recent acquisition of Playmaker , Søgaard emphasised how it was a “ large sports media group ” with a strong position in North America and a marketleading one in Latin America .
He also noted , for the first time , the development of the company ’ s adtech platform , AdVantage , which he said has had a “ promising start and we intend to scale the efforts further during 2024 .”
Notably , advertising sales are an element of growing importance to Better Collective . When speaking about the longstanding focus on
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recurring revenues , of which the large majority comes from affiliate revenue-share deals , chief financial officer Flemming Pedersen said that 8 % of the total of recurring revenues now comes from ad sales versus 75 % from rev-share and 17 % from subscriptions .
Helped by the addition of the Playmaker sites , the global sports audience for Better Collective now stands at over 400 million monthly visits which Søgaard described as “ truly a very strong sports media brand network across the globe .”
“ Over the years , we have expanded our capabilities in Better Collective from being a contender to a leader in sportsbetting affiliation ,” he told the analysts on the call . “ In this , we have developed world-class
April 2024