US growth of 435% drives Better Collective to Q1 revenue record
US growth of 435% drives Better Collective to Q1 revenue record North American acquisitions fuel impressive rise as Copenhagen-based affiliate reports new record for NDCs
Better Collective’s Q1 revenue has soared 74% year-on-year (YoY) in a “better than expected performance in Q1”.
The affiliate posted all-time high revenue of €67.4m (£57.2m) up from the €38.8m recorded in Q1 2021.
Better Collective said the revenue was driven by more than 360,000 newly depositing customers (NDCs), along with an all-time high in revenue share accounts.
Breaking down the firm’s revenue by its two divisions, publishing returned €48.4m, representing a 103% YoY increase from €23.9m in Q1 2021.
Paid media represented €19m, with a smaller YoY rise of 27% from €15m in Q1 2021.
Geographically, the US revenue rocketed 435% YoY due to a series of North American acquisitions by the Danish firm, including that of Canada Sports Betting (CSB) and Action Network.
US revenue amounted to €31m, or 46% of total group revenue, up from €5.8m in Q1 2021.
The firm noted the Super Bowl, March Madness and New York State going live all boosted performance in the US.
The ‘Rest of World’ segment grew a modest 10% YoY from €33m to €36.4m, with Better Collective pointing to low sports win margins and “selected regulatory changes”.
Elsewhere, Better Collective reported a 75% jumped in EBITDA before special items to €23.1m, up from €13.2m, with a corresponding margin of 34%.
The Stockholm-listed business also noted an increase in post-tax profit for the quarter, rising from €8.3m in Q1 2021 to €13.7m
Better Collective reported a 95% YoY growth for NDCs for Q1 2022 with more than 360,000 users, of which 230,000 were on revenue share.
Following the results, Better Collective noted that due to the success of its acquisitions of Canada Sports Betting (CSB) in March (€21.4m) and Futbin in April (€105m), it had realigned its full-year 2022 EDBITDA target to approximately €85m, up from the previous target of €75m.
Speaking on the results, CEO Jesper Søgaard touched on the success in North American and the growth in esports following the Futbin acquisition.
Søgaard said: “The US market is now the biggest market for Better Collective, and it is gradually reaching the same profitability as our European business. Our US business delivered prime results with revenues exceeding €31m in the quarter, which included the Super Bowl and March Madness.
“I am extremely happy to include CSB in the Better Collective product portfolio, and expect the Canadian activities to generate revenues in excess of €5m in 2022. This acquisition gives us a strong foothold in the Canadian market.”
On esports, he said: “Just after the end of the quarter we expanded our esports portfolio by acquiring FUTBIN and related assets for a total price of up to €105m.
“With this exciting addition to the group, our esports portfolio now reaches 100 million monthly visits on website assets as well as three million daily active users on mobile apps, and we have managed to further diversify our income stream as Futbin revenues are mainly ads and subscription sales.”