Better Collective enjoys record quarter amid ongoing pivot to revenue-share model
Danish affiliate giant sees revenue soar 30% as EBITDA and NDCs also jump in strong start to the year
Better Collective has posted record revenue of €87.9m (£76.6m) during Q1 as the industry’s leading affiliate continues to go from strength to strength.
The Copenhagen-based firm noted a 30% year-on-year (YoY) rise in revenue, 23% of which was organic, compared to Q1 2022’s return of €67.4m.
Better Collective said its continued push towards revenue-share models away from CPAs had helped drive the business during the first three months of the year.
Breaking Better Collective’s revenue down, the group’s publishing arm returned a 22% YoY jump in revenue from €48.4m to €59.2m.
During the quarter, the affiliate penned partnerships with global football platform Goal, Nigerian publisher Punch and Polish news portal Wirtualna Polska.
Paid media revenue soared 51% YoY from €19m to €28.7m, which Better Collective noted was due to breakthroughs in North America and a sustained positive performance in Latam.
Geographically, Europe and the rest of the world generated revenue of €50.8m, an increase of 40% YoY compared to €36.3m in 2022.
The group’s North America segment saw revenue rise 19% YoY from €31.1m to €37.1m due to a combination of underlying growth and sports betting launches in Ohio and Massachusetts.
The group’s shift towards revenue share was reflected in the changing makeup of its revenue, the firm said.
Revenue share generated €33.6m during the quarter, compared to just €19.6m in Q1 2022. On the other hand, CPA revenue increased nominally from €39.9m to €40.2m.
In terms of percentages, revenue share now accounted for 38% of group earnings for the quarter while CPA stood at 46%. In Q1 2022, revenue share was 29% and CPA 59%.
Elsewhere, EBITDA increased 44% YoY from €23.1m to €33.3m and post-tax profit jumped from €13.7m to €20.9m, while NDCs increased 35% to 488,000.
Better Collective did note that costs had risen during the quarter from €44m to €55m, which related to increases in personnel costs, investments into its tech platform and expenditure arising from media partnerships.
Speaking on the Q1 results, Better Collective CEO Jesper Søgaard said: “Q1 proved to be another record-breaking quarter. The performance was driven by Latin America and state launches in the US as well as general strong underlying organic growth across the group.
“The last couple of years, Better Collective has been on a transformational journey developing itself from a performance-based marketing business into a digital sports media group,” he added.
Søgaard also gave his thoughts on M&A following the acquisition of Skycon for €45m.
The CEO said: “The strategy and objective were to roll-up enough assets to gain critical scale – like we have now. The past year and onwards, our M&A strategy is to acquire strong local and global sports media with a large and loyal readership, preferably with revenue mainly generated from a single business model in regular advertising.
“By acquiring such assets, we establish a unique chance for the group to leverage its legacy expertise in optimisation while utilising our business models to grow reach and revenue.”