EGR Power 50 2020 – in numbers

The countdown is over. On Friday, we finally revealed what we believe to be the world’s 10 biggest online gaming companies as part of the annual EGR Power 50 rankings.

Here’s some of the key takeaways from this year’s prestigious list:

1 

There is a new number one in town. Flutter Entertainment was crowned 2020’s biggest operator after 10 years at the top for bet365.

Under the influence and leadership section of the report, Flutter’s entry read: “With a bulging portfolio of tier-one brands, Flutter is the 800-pound gorilla whereby its decisions now have a knock-on effect on the rest of the industry.”

Flutter’s H1 revenue rose 22% on a pro forma basis to £2.39bn, with adjusted EBITDA growth of 35% to £684m. Full-year EBITDA (excluding the US) is expected to be £1.28bn-£1.35bn, while the firm is also confident of becoming the US market leader having bolstered its stake in FanDuel to 95%.

Flutter Entertainment CEO Peter Jackson

-1 

Every year we partner with accountancy and business advisory giant BDO which helps us crunch the numbers. In addition to helping us with the financial rankings, BDO also compiles a number of graphs which offer an intriguing insight into how the group of Power 50 firms have performed in the 12-month period overall.

What’s notable this year is combined negative EBITDA growth of -1%. EBITDA growth had already more than halved between 2018 and 2019 and has continued to fall into 2020. This year’s combined EBITDA stood at £4.15bn, according to BDO, down from £4.19 in 2019.

4 

There are a number of companies which fell just short of making the cut this year, and we’ve recognised four in particular in our ‘Ones to watch’ list. Luckbox is included this year to represent the unstoppable growth of esports betting, as further evidenced by Esports Entertainment Group’s running jump to number 48 as a new entry after an IPO. Enlabs, Coolbet and Wynn Interactive make up the rest of the quartet, while Australia and US-facing PointsBet is another operator that could easily break into the top 50 next year.

Esports has boomed in 2020

17 

Superbet is 2020’s highest climber, having leapt a giant 17 places to number 28. The operator took a 60% stake in online casino operator Lucky7 in July to diversify its offering and expects to enter three new markets within the next 12 months. On the people front, former William Hill trading chief Terry Pattinson joined the group as its new trading director in July while ex-Casumo exec John Harmander (pictured) was unveiled as chief marketing officer in January.

Superbet CMO John Harmander

11

DraftKings is the highest ranked non-international US sports betting operator in this year’s list at number 11 and would surely back itself to break into the top 10 next year considering the rate of growth in the US. A transformational 2020 saw the firm go public in a reverse SPAC merger with sports betting supplier SBTech as the operator sought to purchase its own technology. In a yet-to-be-published interview with EGR, CEO Jason Robins (pictured) cemented his belief that DraftKings can become a $100bn company from today’s enormous market cap of $18bn – lofty ambitions indeed.

DraftKings CEO Jason Robins