Better Collective secures first post-IPO acquisition

Better Collective is already reaping the benefits of its recent IPO after generating the funds to acquire the owner of German sports betting affiliate leader Wettbasis.

The company has bolstered its position in German-speaking jurisdictions with the €36m (£32m/$42m) takeover of Bola Webinformation, which comes a year after it bought the owner of Sportwettentest and Wettfreunde, Sportfreunde. Bola Webinformation generated annual revenue of approximately €9m in 2017, with earnings at €6.5m.

Better Collective floated on the Nasdaq Stockholm last month, with its prospectus valuing the company at up to $182.6m.

While the company is headquartered in Denmark and traded in Sweden, Better Collective’s director of business development, Marc Frank Pedersen, told iGamingBusiness.com that Germany is a market of particular interest for Better Collective.

“The predominant reason why we wanted to list on the stock exchange was to raise funds for a continued acquisition strategy,” Pedersen said. “The acquisition of Bola is a natural part of this strategy – and we will continue to acquire other quality companies in the future.

“With the acquisition last year of Sportfreunde and WettPortal, we took that position a step further.

“Building on the success of those two acquisitions, we have been very keen on expanding our presence in Germany. With Bola, we managed to acquire the biggest brand in sports betting affiliation in Germany, and being a market leader in the biggest market in Europe is of course very important to us.”

After a series of acquisitions in the last year, CEO Jesper Søgaard (pictured) last month told iGamingBusiness.com that the company selected the IPO route as it allowed the existing management team to “remain in control”.

Meanwhile, Better Collective remains bullish about the German betting market’s Fifa World Cup performance despite the holder’s early exit from Russia 2018.

Better Collective said World Cup traction has remained “strong” following Joachim Low’s team’s departure in the group stage and it is “very positive” about the remainder of the tournament.

“Needless to say, we would have preferred to keep Germany in the World Cup for a few more games,” Pedersen said.