SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
New investors will enable Skores Media to continue product development and M&A as key growth pillars, co-founder Christian de Cailleux tells SBCNews correspondent Jake Pollard.
French sports media group Skores Media has brought in the investment funds Stags Participations and MI3 as new shareholders and restructured its corporate financing in partnership with the leading French financial institutions Société Générale, BNP Paribas and Banque Publique d’Investissement (BPI).
The group was founded in 2009 and operates SportyTrader.com and Skores, two leading sports media brands that offer sports fans access to in-depth pre-match analysis, real-time monitoring of results, statistics, livescores and odds comparison for sporting events worldwide.
Through its brands, Skores Media attracts 60 million monthly visitors and a community of 4 million fans on social networks and co-founder Christian de Cailleux says the new structure will enable it to continue investing in product and content as it enters a new phase of growth.
Speaking to SBCNews, de Cailleux says the entry of two major private equity firms and the support of top-tier banks is a significant milestone for Skores Media, “but above all, it is evidence of the quality of the work carried out by our teams and a great recognition for our sports media brands. It shows the progress and maturity achieved by our group”.
Product and Brand Vision
Clarifying the new structure, de Cailleux says the company’s founders “remain in place as large majority owners, while Stags Participations and MI3 take on a minority stake in place of our historical business angels”.
He adds: “Beyond the financial support provided by Stags Participations and MI3, they both come with a strong experience in supporting strategic growth projects”.
Their involvement will also enable Skores to pursue the international expansion of its leading brands. The company has been extending its reach beyond its core European markets and recently launched tailored versions of its portals for Africa, South America and the US.
“With Skores Apps and Sportytrader.com, we have strong global sports media brands in our portfolio with great brand recognition and awareness among sports fans and these international moves confirm our commitment to delivering quality localised content that meets the expectations of sports fans in those regions,” says De Cailleux.
M&A… the other key growth pillar
The news, inevitably, leads observers to wonder about Skores’ M&A ambitions. In 2023, the group acquired Cheekypunter.com, a UK sports website, for an undisclosed amount and is hungry for a large-scale acquisition.
The Skores co-founder comments: “The financial support of top-tier banks will enable us to raise cash on demand and M&A will be the second key pillar of our growth strategy. We have always been very demanding in terms of our acquisition criteria and we are now well equipped to capitalise on future M&A opportunities that will extend our geographical presence and expand our portfolio of websites.”
Affiliate M&A may seem like it is currently dominated by groups like Better Collective or Gaming Innovation Group (GIG), but de Cailleux says there is “lots of M&A activity in the space and there are numerous opportunities for a well-established player like us to further consolidate our position through well-targeted acquisitions. We are having several conversations and reviewing a number of M&A opportunities with the aim of completing a major acquisition in the near future”, he adds.
The group has made a name and space for itself by being a betting affiliate, why is it so focused on developing as a sports media brand?
“Skores Media has 40 full-time staff, a team of 100+ content specialists that produce betting tips, guides and sports news. We have always been sports-focused and committed to delivering high value content and our traffic figures confirm that the strategy is paying off. Our audience is then monetised through advertising and affiliation,” explains de Cailleux.
