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Affiliate Monitor Shedding gold
Shedding gold
● Ships that pass in the night ● The Daly grind ● Back to the source
● Running on empty ● The game moves on
PART ONE
One 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 continue to move into 2024 .
Most obviously , and certainly dominating the headlines in the latter half of last 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 at $ 189m (£ 150.5m /€ 175.4m ) 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 added .
SHIPS THAT PASS IN THE NIGHT
But if Better Collective rolling up ever more and ever bigger targets is one major theme , then the other is the example of a company heading in the opposite direction . As Better Collective continues to dominate , the erstwhile market leader Catena Media has also been busy , but wholly on the other side of the M & A equation , divesting itself of large chunks of its business .
As recently as the first quarter of 2022 , Catena Media generated revenues of € 45.2m for the quarter , helping contribute to revenues for 2022 as a whole of iGB Affiliate Monitor