EGR Power 50 2021 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:

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Entain moved into the slipstream of Flutter Entertainment (number one), knocking bet365 down to third in the process, as the FTSE 100 operator continued on a tear in 2021 under the stewardship of CEO Jette Nygaard-Andersen. As well as racking up 23 consecutive quarters of double-digit online NGR growth up until and including Q3, this industry powerhouse completed the acquisition of Baltics-focused Enlabs and planted its flag firmly in the esports camp with the purchase of esports bookmaker Unikrn. Progress in the US has been mightily impressive, with BetMGM – the JV with MGM Resorts – grabbing a 26% market share in sports betting and igaming nationwide in the three months to August.

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EGR calls on the services of accountancy and business advisory firm BDO every year to help with crunching the numbers. Besides aiding with the rankings, BDO also furnishes the report with graphs that show how the Power 50 operators have fared in the past 12 months. This edition showed that NGR growth surged 19% to almost £25.4bn, up from £21.3bn last year. This 19% increase compared with 7% growth rises for both 2020 and 2019, yet it was narrowly ahead of the 18% growth achieved in 2018. BDO also revealed the CAGR for NGR over the course of the past six years stood at 13%.

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DraftKings jumped up the rankings to put itself among the major players by climbing seven spots from 11^th last year to finish fourth this year. Not bad for a company which wasn’t even in the Power 50 rankings prior to PASPA’s repeal in 2018. This year has seen DraftKings transition onto its in-house platform, acquire casino operator Golden Nugget Online Gaming in a deal worth $1.56bn (yet to complete) and embrace the NFT frenzy by launching digital collectibles ecosystem DraftKings Marketplace. To top it all, the Boston-based outfit made an unexpected move to acquire industry stalwart Entain, although talks collapsed in the end. Despite DraftKings never turning a profit and losses piling up, you have to admire the audacity of the play.

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This year’s ‘Ones to watch’ list swelled from four to six companies. Those knocking on the door of the Power 50 included online casino and bingo operator MrQ, which was the subject of a profile interview in the latest issue of EGR Intel, along with Novibet with its award-winning in-house product. Across the pond, sports betting exchange start-up Sporttrade caught our eye, while Fubo and Fanatics are trying to leverage their brand and customer base to make a splash in sports betting. Rounding out the list was Low6, winner of the rising star accolade at the EGR Operator Awards in November. So, those occupying the lower rungs of the rankings could face stiff competition this time next year.

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The honour of this year’s highest climber went to Danske Spil, which leapt 18 places from 36^th on last year’s rankings. Much of the state-owned Danish operator’s gains can be put down to strong financial performance as accountancy firm BDO awarded particularly high marks in this category. Indeed, all the key verticals showed solid growth in the quarterly results published this past 12 months. Denmark’s surprise run to the semi-finals of the rescheduled Euro 2020 in the summer boosted turnover, while the casino gaming and lottery arms of the business have benefited from the increased traffic at Danske Spil’s online sportsbook.