US opportunity to shape Better Collective strategy
Better Collective is set to shape its future growth strategy on developments in the US market to expand its horizons from a traditional focus on Europe, the company’s CEO Jesper Søgaard revealed this (Tuesday) morning.
The affiliate provider confirmed in its first quarterly trading update since listing on Nasdaq Stockholm a bumper 93% year-on-year increase in revenue to €9.7m (£8.8m/$11.3m), lifting earnings by 90% to €3.8m.
The company cited the impact of the Fifa World Cup, but also increased M&A activity, with sports betting-focused SpilXperten, Bola Webinformation and WBS expanding on the company’s significant presence in Denmark, Austria and Greece, respectively.
“The strengthened balance sheet combined with higher cash flow gives us the chance to explore more M&A opportunities,” said Søgaard (pictured), referring to the IPO, which generated net proceeds of €65m. “It is a completely different proposition.”
However, Better Collective acknowledged that regulatory changes in the US could be game-changing for the company’s strategic outlook.
Søgaard, speaking about the repeal of the US sports betting ban in May, said: “We expect this event to shape our future strategy.”
Geographical expansion, with a dedicated focus on the US, was mentioned as three pillars of growth for Better Collective, alongside organic growth and consolidation through M&As.
Søgaard added: “We focus on regulated markets and have a strong position in most European markets. We have offices across five European markets and that has always been our focus.
“We are well positioned to capture growth in the US and it will be a strategic priority. We already have more than 10 websites in place there and we have held an affiliate licence in New Jersey for casino traffic since 2014, but it’s produced small revenue so far.
“Now the opportunity is that we have a lot of US traffic on our sites, so as states regulate we’ll be able to monetise this traffic more and launch products that are focused on the US market.
“We are live with sports betting in New Jersey, but we are just not expecting a big impact yet.”
Søgaard added that any growth in the US is unlikely to make a significant impact on the balance sheet until 2020 at the earliest. Better Collective is anticipating year-on-year revenue growth of between 30% and 50% up to that point.
Søgaard told iGamingBusiness.com in June that the company selected the IPO route as it allowed the existing management team to “remain in control”.