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Better Collective A/S trades with confidence, having fast-tracked strategic changes to its US media network to boost scalability and long-term profits generated by US portfolio.
The Stockholm-listed publisher maintains full-year targets despite anticipating a “larger estimated impact of €10m (revenue and EBITDA)” from its decision to switch its US network from CPA to revenue share deals.
Despite changes, Better Collective maintains its growth momentum as Q3 trading saw group revenues stand at €60m, up 32% on 2021 comparative results of €45m.
Headline growth was maintained against a tough backdrop of an irregular low season of sports, felt across Europe, the US and LatAm markets.
Period trading saw the group’s Europe-&-ROW unit generate revenues of €43m, up 38% on Q3 2021 performance of €31m – attributed to the continued growth of Better Collective’s European sports betting assets and its FUTBIN esports community,
Implementing a changeover to hybrid/revshare models across its US network of Action Network, VegasInsider, SportsHandle and Scores&Odds – Better Collective registered a US revenue increase of 17% to €17m (Q32021: €14.5m).
Executing US changes, Better Collective underlined that “revenue share income was all-time high at €25m; 73% YOY growth”. Period trading saw its media network acquire 285,000 new depositing customers on revshare contracts (+111%).
CEO & Co-Founder, Jesper Søgaard, explained: “Q3 delivered strong growth for the Group, where we continued our good developments despite the turbulent macroeconomic environment.
“The most exciting trends for the quarter were the move to revenue share in the US, which has been fast-forwarded, and the Group revenue share income continuing to break all-time highs.”
Undertaking strategic adjustments, Q3 EBITDA stood at €14.5m, up 7% on Q3 2021 results of €13.5m. Group earnings results were impacted by a low US network contribution of €700,000 matched against €13.9m generated by Europe-&-ROW assets.
Year-to-date corporate revenues stand at €183m which outperform full-year 2021 comparatives of €177m, alongside a YTD EBITDA of €48m, trading above €39m generated in FY2021.
Closing its Q3 trading statement, Better Collective declared an operating profit (EBIT) of €9.5m, reversing like-for-like 2021 losses of €360,000. YTD EBIT tracks at €39.5m.
Group leadership cites a strong start to year-end trading, as October revenues track at €26m (50% YoY growth).
Strengthening its media network, Better Collective has launched three new strategic partnerships with the Chicago Tribune, Boston.com and SPORT1 to bring engaging sports betting content to the publications.
Confident of achieving all FY2020 objectives, Søgaard commented: “Last year, few deemed it doable to operate on revenue share in the US. Therefore, when deciding on the target of approx. €75m on EBITDA in early 2022, it was assumed that the US would only be CPA-based.
“I see the shift we are currently undergoing in the US as similar to tech companies moving from license-based to operating a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.
“At Better Collective, we have always favoured revenue share agreements as we consistently invest for the long-term. This also means our products are already built to cater to these types of agreements.”
