Better Collective Posts 35% Climb in Full-Year Revenue

Better Collective has reported revenue of €91m (£78.6m/$111.3m) for 2020, marking an increase of 35% on the €64.5m it generated in 2019.

The results were boosted by a strong Q4, in which the affiliate saw record sports betting revenues for the final quarter of €37m, compared to €19.5m at the same point in 2019.

The firm said it has adapted to the rescheduled sports calendar at the end of last year and in doing so managed to deliver a 30% increase in new depositing customers to 153,000 during Q4.

Meanwhile, Better Collective’s €44m acquisition of Atemi Group in October 2020 is credited with boosting its performance towards the end of the year, adding a pay-per-click unit to its operations.

Excluding Atemi, Better Collective reported a 92% increase in EBITDA for Q4 from €7.1m in 2019 to €13.6m in the closing three months of 2020.

CEO Jesper Søgaard said: “Strong performance in Q4 marks the ending of an unusual year of unprecedented halt in sports and general insecurity as the pandemic affected societies worldwide. Our business has proven resilient and is back on track with record-high performance in Q4.”

Despite delivering Q4 growth, the firm cited tough conditions in Sweden, Spain and Italy where the pandemic led to intensified regulatory restrictions. In the UK network traffic was affected by changes to Google’s search engine.

Looking at the full-year results, Better Collective saw EBITDA (before special items) rise by 34% to €36m, from €27m in 2019.

Taking into account the €80m spent on M&A over the course of 2020, the firm reported full-year 2020 group profits of €22m, compared to €14m in 2019.

Better Collective has set a target of €160m in corporate revenues with an organic EBITDA of €50m for 2021. Commenting on this, Søgaard said: “We have entered 2021 in great shape and are well-positioned for an eventful 2021.”

He added: “I am very satisfied with the performance and I firmly believe we have a much stronger company than we had a year ago. The new year, 2021, looks to be a year with a lot of big sports events and my hope is that fans and spectators again will be able to meet at the stadiums to enjoy the games.”