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Affiliate Monitor Change at the top
Change at the top
● Losing it ● A question asked ● A focus changed ● Go west
● Pulled apart at the seams ● Different strokes
PART ONE
LOSING IT
When the news broke in December last year that Catena Media had sold AskGamblers and related assets for € 45m , there can be no doubt it marked the end of an era .
For much of the last decade , Catena Media had been at the forefront of perhaps the clearest corporate trend in the affiliate space : the race towards super affiliate status via M & A .
Alongside in particular Better Collective , Catena Media forged a path through dozens of accretive deals that combined to build a business that , at its peak , generated revenues of € 136.1m in 2021 . As can be seen from the quarterly revenue progression , it was some journey .
In terms of M & A , Catena Media was involved in some of the biggest sectordefining deals in the space . Among the highlights , the $ 45m purchase of the PlayNJ assets in December 2016 , a deal which helped lay the foundation of Catena Media ’ s current North American position , the € 26.5m BayBets buyout in December 2017 and the original AskGamblers deal in April 2016 worth € 15m .
A QUESTION ASKED
Now , of course , that business has been sold to the affiliate arm of rival Gaming Innovation Group . The transaction is set to complete in the third quarter of this year and will be settled in cash and on a debt-free basis . The € 45m will be received in three tranches ; the first € 20m will be paid on closing with a further € 10m due 12 months later and the final payment of € 15m two years hence .
As well as AskGamblers , other domain brands that will transfer to GiG are JohnSlots and NewCasinos , which came as part of the same package when Catena bought the business .
Catena added that the deal involved the sale of two distinct subsidiaries in Malta and Serbia .
It said the net book value of the intangible assets of the businesses involved – i . e . the goodwill and brand value – was € 27.2m . In the first nine months of 2022 , they generated a combined revenue of € 12.9m while EBITDA for the period was € 8.4m or € 6.2m after central overheads were taken into account .
On a crude annualised basis , the assets therefore would have revenues in 2022 of € 17.2m and EBITDA ex-central costs of € 11.2m , meaning the revenue multiple iGB Affiliate Monitor