
Nestled on the coast of the Baltic Sea, the picturesque and medieval influenced city of Tallinn was the recent setting as SBC News gathered with various figures of the Yolo Group to witness the lid being lifted on various aspects of the business.
Across an action packed two days, comprising an eye opening partners event, sneak peak of the luxury of a soon to be opened Bombay Club, office tours and some of the finer things that the Estonian capital has to offer, the company pulled back the curtain on a march for continued success.
In this opening edition of a two-part special, Mark Robinson, Commercial Director at Yolo Investments, elaborates in detail on the group’s strategy to ensure sustained prosperity across core verticals, before switching focus to adopt a distinctly market-focused approach.
Upon being quizzed on prospective investment opportunities, more notably how these are assessed and correctly judged to ensure a correct fit, Robinson chose to hone in on one recent example in Basketball Forever, a first investment in Fund II which launched in late 2023.
“This embodies what we look for in a start-up and in a business that we invest into,” he began. “We look for certain characteristics in our founders, because we invest in the founders as much as the business.
“We look for characteristics in our founders that would sum up our strong beliefs. Effectively what that means is that they are resilient enough to go the whole way, but also determined, want to get their hands dirty, and not have an ego big enough to not change as well.”
Adding: “The next thing is identifying USP, or the specific advantage that the company has over its peers. Basketball Forever for us was a unique position. It has built a very large social media audience
“So the clear advantage for them was the engagement levels and the opportunity to launch their own product in the future when we compare them to a set of competitors. We think what really needs to be noted is we see a lot of pitch decks, we see a lot of investment opportunities. So, when we do make an investment, we know that we’ve seen so much that this stands out.”
“We’re not oblivious to larger trends that are happening in the market”
This ensured that Basketball Forever, which raised $4m in the first close of a Series A funding round, was “head and shoulders above the rest” and “really stood out” as a company that possesses clear ambitions to raise the bar.
“Finally, we think understanding the long term market opportunity of their product, and our thesis is that the world is moving towards more gamification, not less, and F2P, or (free to play) microtransaction space, will over time seamlessly immerse into everyday apps,” Robinson continued.
“We also believe that there’ll be a convergence between F2P and RMG, and who knows the likes of Angry Birds maybe one day introduce a P2P real money gaming option. There are many aspects that fit into the general thesis for us.”
Sticking with the theme of investment opportunities, Robinson was quizzed on just how tech trends in such a fast moving ecosystem can affect the decision making process, as well as how Yolo can monitor what they should be financing.
“We’re not oblivious to larger trends that are happening in the market,” he said. “We think igaming’s probably been slow to adapt previously, but we’re certainly not oblivious and certainly not immune to it.”
In addition to citing the familiar example of well known recommendation algorithms, think Netflix, Spotify and Hulu for example, the former New Zealand All Black shared a belief that the industry is witnessing a transitional period for legacy operators.
Labelled as “self-evident”, Robinson noted that should technological advancements not be correctly embraced, such operations could quickly cease to exist.
“We’re looking at B2B companies that are helping to solve and move tech advancements into our world as well,” he commented. “B2C companies pushing the legacy operators out with faster adoption are also very interesting.
“If the trend aligns with our narrative, then we’re happy to invest or to at least leverage that into a larger ecosystem”
“In general, we don’t jump every time somebody mentions AI or machine learning, if anything we’re more sceptical. It becomes commonplace to add the current hyped nugget somewhere in the pitch deck, or mention it at random times during investor calls. We have a pretty good understanding of which areas we can add value in.
“If the trend aligns with our narrative, then we’re happy to invest or to at least leverage that into a larger ecosystem to become clients/partners with the potential future investment as well.”
With opportunities across gaming and fintech a clear focus for Yolo Investments, Robinson closed chapter one by elaborating on just how and where the crypto-first gaming firm plans to capitalise.
Despite possessing a vast ecosystem of businesses and partnerships, he concentrated on one idea that “has always been a challenge”. Notably, payments and the movement of money.
“If you live in the EU and your whole life’s there, you (mostly) don’t have any problems with payments,” he stated. “Your bank is there, everything’s fine. You have Apple Pay, Google Pay, Insta, SEPA, bank transfers, everything arrives in a second. Your whole life’s in Europe. No problem. That’s not our world and that’s not the gaming world.
“Everything works, but if you’re a global operator, which we are and many other companies are, you need to move around various currencies, all these different currencies require proper corresponding banking partners to be set up for each one.
“And of course, each one has a fee and associated cost as well. This is where fintech comes into play and this is why it was a big focus for us. They can use new technologies, like blockchain, to move value around the world instantly and settle in relevant local currencies.
“If something works, we’re happy to introduce that to our portfolio and gaming companies”
“That type of innovation is what we’ve been looking for, and also benefits ourselves as well as our companies. The compliance side of finance has become very complex. There are opportunities to cater to smaller segments like igaming and crypto as they’re often less loved by traditional banks.”
Despite labelling igaming and fintech as being very close in nature, Robinson proclaimed that it’s harder than it should be for igaming companies to move money around the world.
This has become a specific opportunity for Yolo Investments. Despite innovation certainly helping to make that easier, this remains something that the group remains firmly vested in and supporting with its investments.
“If something works, we’re happy to introduce that to our portfolio and gaming companies too, because a lot of our investments are in gaming and they want to move fiat and crypto and they experience the same battles and challenges as we do,” he concluded.