Action Network considered Series C funding round before influx of M&A offers
CEO Patrick Keane says betting media outlet rebuffed offers from operators in order to maintain as many partnerships as possible
The Action Network initially intended to carry out a $30m Series C investment round to fund growth before being approached and ultimately acquired by Better Collective in a $240m deal finalized last week.
Speaking to EGR North America, Action Network CEO Patrick Keane said it was shortly after discussing another capital raise late last year that offers from operators, media outlets, and public and private equity firms flooded in.
“The business had been profitable in September, October, November, and December, and we had plenty of cash on the balance sheet so we decided that we’d slow-roll that and maybe just do an internal round,” Keane said.
“As we were deciding to do that, we suddenly had an influx of inbound interest from several different parties, from operators, to media [companies], to strategics, to public investors and private equity firms, and they all happened in sequence towards the end of last year,” he added.
Action Network ultimately chose Copenhagen-based affiliate giant Better Collective to strengthen its own growing affiliate business and maintain multiple partnerships with operators at the same time.
“One of the things that was challenging about working with an operator is [having to be] a single source for affiliate conversion to a single sportsbook,” Keane said.
“You can see strategically if sportsbook A buys you, sportsbooks B through Z are not going to want to work with you anymore, because you’re ultimately going to be driving bettors to competitors.
“When I look at our business, one of the most attractive things when I talked to investors was the notion of being the Expedia or Travelocity of sportsbooks,” he added.
Action Network will maintain its current portfolio of operator partnerships after moving under the Better Collective US umbrella.
On the Better Collective deal, Keane said he expected the affiliate to contribute greatly to Action Network’s fantasy business.
“We’re already looking at how we can yield better results collectively if we are to enhance our SEO and [Better Collective] has years of experience with domains and sites that have more authority and we’ll see how that’ll work [in our favor],” he added.
“I look at SEO as being an important part of integrations, so can we combine together and create compeling deals with our sportsbook partners, based on our scale in combination with Better Collective?”
Keane will continue to lead the business as CEO and will report into Better Collective US chief Marc Pedersen.