Better Collective Q2
The top line
Revenue hit €40m ($46.9m), up 162% YoY on a Covid-hit prior-year period and up 3% sequentially. EBITDA before special items rose 89.6% YoY to €12.7m but was down 3.8% QoQ.
Publishing accounted for €26.1m of revenues (up 79% YoY) and paid media stood at €13.9m, with organic growth rate of 13%.
Trading in July was softer with organic growth of 13% partly due to tighter sports margins.
Action reaction: Better Collective broke out its US revenues for the first time, showing revenues of €6.95m in Q2, up 429% YoY and now contributing 19% of total revenues. This includes one month of revenues from the Action Network acquisition which contributed €1.8m of revenue and neutral EBITDA. CEO Jesper Søgaard was keen to say there would be more to come from what in his view was “the no.1 asset in the US sports-betting industry” and helping BC’s transition towards becoming a “broad-based media group.”
When I said I loved you: Søgaard said its media partnerships, including the previously announced deals with the Daily Telegraph in the UK and nj.com, as well as with three unnamed partners, had achieved a “breakthrough” in Q2, having previously established the proof of concept. The media deals delivered over 38,000 NDCs over the quarter out of a total of 179,000 and Søgaard noted that the nj.com deal in particular was helping answer the issue of affiliate revenue growth in the more mature US states. “There are no signs that we should view the early states as mature states,” he added.
Old world, new problems: RoW markets still contributed the majority of revenues (€12.7m, up 222% YoY), but in step with its European online gaming and betting partners, it is suffering from regulatory actions in Sweden, Spain and the UK where in the paid media segment, Søgaard said customers had lowered spend due to regulatory pressures. Meanwhile, in Germany the new rules regarding affiliates not being able to earn from revenue share is leading to a shift to CPA.
“It’s important to understand there is a big change in the way we can monetise,” said Søgaard. “We are still discussing how to build partnerships more tied to performance. But from a traffic perspective, the numbers are still strong with strong rankings.”
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