The top line
- Revenue up 37% YoY to $10.1m while adj. EBITDA was down 14% YoY at $3.5m. NDCs were down 4% to 27k.
- Casino revenue at $7.97m (up 25%), sports revenue at $2.1m (up 142%), other revenue down 58% at $194k.
- Cash balances post-IPO stood at $53.2m.
Westward ho: The third-quarter figures for the newly listed Gambling.com Group were struck by problems in its historically strong markets in Europe including Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. Hence the somewhat lacklustre NDC count. But the outlook was more positive with organic growth of 40%+ forecast for the FY21, not including any M&A.
Be thankful for what you’ve got: The company launched ArizonaBets.com over the period as well as MarylandBets.com and like its affiliate marketing peers will be looking to benefit from the opening of the New York market early next year. On the call CEO Charles Gillespie pointed out that at least from an affiliate point of view, the market would be competitive.
“I think it is an open question for the whole industry over what those high taxes will really mean in practice,” Gillespie said. “I don’t think operators will be too focused on the tax rate at the start as they aim for market share and a successful launch but they will really feel the effect of the tax rate as they reach the end of 2022 and beyond.”
Buy side: Gillespie teased on upcoming M&A deals, suggesting the company would be looking at “one or two” deals in the territory of between $20-50m. “In terms of frequency and timing, we don’t want to put any firm stakes in the ground,” he said. “We are extremely busy and we look forward to updating everyone when we can.”
“On size, the thinking internally is that in many respects a bigger deal is the same amount of work as a $10m deal,” Gillespie added. “So if it is the same amount of work to do a bigger deal, then we would prefer to do bigger deals. That is why the guidance is $20-50m.”
No quantum leap: He added that he was ruling out matching the likes of Catena Media and Better Collective in terms of an absolute number of deals. “That is not our objective,” he added. “We’re not going to try and go up to that quantum of acquisition, neither in the short nor the long term.”
