Despite coronavirus Covid-19 drags and the prospect of paying higher taxes, Danish Affiliate Better Collective it is still on track to become the world’s leading sports aggregator, believes CEO Jesper Søgaard, after his firm posted encouraging results for Q3.
Revenue for the third-quarter (ending September 30) was €18.3m (£16.4m/US$21.6m), a seven per cent increase over the same period in 2019. Net profit in Q3, year-on-year, was up 50 per cent to €4.9m (£4.4m/US$5.8m). And the Affiliate’s number of “actionistas” grew by 13 per cent to almost 100,000 paying customers.
“Q3 showed the strong underlying performance [of] our revenue share accounts as sports wagering was at a record high, as were the number of bets placed and active sports users,” said Søgaard.
Better Collective is now in upbeat acquisition mode, buying pay-per-click specialists the Atemi Group for €44m (£39.5m/US$52m) in October and zagranie.com, a Polish sports betting media brand, earlier this month.
In all, the Danish firm’s revenue for the first nine months of this year was €54.5m (£49m/US$64.3m), a 14 per cent increase from 2019. Net profit for the period was €13.5m (£12.1m/US$15.9m) against the €10.1m (£9m/US$11.9m) of last year.
“In general, the market development has been in line with the assumptions we made mid-March when we decided to provide an extraordinary business update based on this unprecedented COVID-19 situation,” Søgaard continued.
“I am very proud of the way we are steering the business during these difficult times and [hope] that we can maintain our full-year financial guidance considering these unusual circumstances.”
Although taxes on gross gaming revenue in Denmark are set to increase from 20 per cent to 28 per cent, Better Collective remains determined to push ahead with its US market expansion plans focussing on the states of Virginia, Michigan and Tennessee during Q4.
Buoyed by the good financials, Søgaard, who founded Better Collective in 2004, asserted: “It is our strategic target to become the leading sports betting aggregator in the world.”
Few could deny that they’re back on track.