Affiliate Monitor: October 2021

This quarter saw corporate activity centred on the affiliate sector ratchet up another level with Bruin Capital splashing £155m to acquire Oddschecker Global Media. This of course followed Q2’s headline acquisition of the Action Network by Better Collective for an equally eyewatering $240m.

While Oddschecker’s business is almost wholly focused in European odds comparison markets, the US was a much a driver of the deal as it was for Better Collective’s of Action Network and Catena’s of lineups.com and I5Media. Oddschecker’s head of commercial strategy Guy Harding speaks exclusively about the deal to Scott Longley in Part 1.

The US was however not the only driver of acquisition in the period, with Raketech’s acquisition of Infinileads giving it a bigger footprint in Latam and XLMedia acquiring igaming-focused digital agency Blueclaw.

The flurry of activity in Q3 was also not restricted to M&A, with Gambling.com Group listing on the New York and Playmaker on the Toronto exchanges, providing further earnings visibility on the sector. Jefferies’ initiation note on GAMB pegged the value of the US gaming market at between $2.4-$3bn a year. We provide analysis of this in Part 2.

Stephen Carter
Editorial director, iGB