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Affiliate Monitor Company-by-company Q2 results analysis
generated a fast turnaround and have yet to harvest all the synergies ,” he said as he started the call with the analysts .
Playmaker HQ wasn ’ t a normal affiliate media buy . Rather , it is a sports and entertainment media platform which specialises in providing original entertainment and sports content , mainly targeting the US market .
Søgaard said the “ commercial development ” since acquisition had fallen short of the vendor ’ s own expectations .
“ The initial large earnout blueprint aimed to align the seller ’ s high anticipations for the future ensuring we would only compensate for tangible achievements and not mere projections ,” he added . “ It goes without saying that we expected more of the performance since day one .”
He said that Better Collective had since been on a “ steep learning curve ”, and having replaced the commercial team the company remains optimistic that the original investment case for Playmaker HQ can materialise , albeit “ approximately with a oneyear delay .”
He added : “ We have noted significant synergistic interest in Playmaker HQ ’ s media products from our endemic partners and are now geared to nurture the non-endemic aspects .” Søgaard went on to suggest the commercial pipeline for the second half of the year “ already looks promising ”.
SEARCHING TIMES
The other main negative for the quarter came with the continued fallout from Google ’ s change in its treatment of third-party gambling content . The company had previously warned at the time of its Q1 earnings in May about the potentially negative impact of the new policy on its media partnerships , prompting a doubledigit drop in the Better Collective share price .
But it turned out that for BC , Google ’ s bark was worse than its bite , as Søgaard said the initial impact was soon recovered . He said that while one particular USfacing partnership had seen a decrease in the rankings for its content in Europe and rest of the world , the overall media partnership portfolio had seen an uplift in rankings and “ thereby performance ”.
Still , Better Collective was in the process of adapting its media partnerships to better align with the new reality . “ We remain confident that our media partnership business has a promising future , however , likely in a slightly moderated format ,” he said .
Indeed , despite the media partnerships setback , Better Collective reiterated its targets
“ It goes without saying that we expected more of the [ Playmaker HQ ] performance since day one ”
JESPER SØGAARD , BETTER COLLECTIVE
for the rest of the year . This should see revenue come in at € 395m- € 425m and EBITDA at € 130m- € 140m .
In contrast to Playmaker HQ , Better Collective has enjoyed greater success with the more recent acquisition of AceOdds , undertaken in May this year ( see Part 1 of this Monitor ).
Søgaard made the point that generally acquisitions have “ enriched ” the company and he added that when it comes to further deals Better Collective is “ very comfortable ” with its position in the market .
“ As buyers , we are not forced to act but can rather strategically evaluate potential targets to identify the most promising iGB Affiliate Monitor