Cash rich
Startups raised over $200m in 2024
New money raised more than double the 2023 total.
In +More: Star ‘mystery buyer’ gives shares a boost.
Earnings in brief: Golden Matrix, High Roller.
The growth company focus is Vor Interactive.
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Take that to the bank: The funding amount raised by betting and gaming startups and scale-ups in the past 12 months hit at least $190m or almost exactly double the figure from 2023. It points to a return to a buoyancy in expectations around the potential of the betting and gaming sector.
As tracked by Earnings+More, there were 37 funding rounds announced last year for a disclosed total of $190.5m.
With the sums involved in a dozen deals not disclosed, it means total funding was likely well over $200m for the year.
Sub par: The total compares with the disclosed amount in 2023 of $95.5m, which came from a mere 18 new cash raises. Again, when undisclosed amounts are estimated, it means funding likely topped $100m but this is still far below the $334m raised in 2022.
The bounceback points to the lessening of fears over money raising, as the prospect of falling rates – and subsequently the reality of cuts in the Fed funds rate – freed up capital.
Panning for digital gold: One theme running through the latter half of the year in particular was an enthusiasm for crypto- and blockchain-related gambling startups.
The largest funding round last year was the $45m raised by offshore blockchain-based prediction market provider Polymarket, a company that subsequently rose to prominence during the November elections.
Thiel Good Inc: Among its backers is Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, alongside Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin.
Monkey tennis? The next biggest raise came from crypto betting and gaming operator Monkey Tilt, which amassed $30m in new money in a round led by major crypto investor Pantera Capital.
A familiar name was also raising money for a crypto-based venture, as FanDuel’s former founder Nigel Eccles saw his BetHog startup land $6m of funding from 6MV and Bullpen, among others.
Decentralized Ethereum layer-2 betting exchange DuelNow closed an $11m funding round led by GEM Digital.
Making a splash: The third-largest amount raised in 2024 came in March when Betr raised a further $15m from investors including VC firms Harmony Partners and 10X Capital.
Next up, fantasy sports operator Splash Sports raised $14.1m from a Series A2 funding round led by Boston Seed, one of the early investors in DraftKings.
New year, new funding
More where that came from: New fund raises have already been announced within the past 10 days. First, Betmate revealed it had raised $2m from London-based VC Accelerate Ventures.
Then Elantil announced it had launched with the support of HappyHour.io (see Venture playground below), and the latest news is that Black Cow Technology has raised an undisclosed amount from JJK Partners in a Series A funding round.
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+More
Mystery shopper: A previously unknown Macau-based businessman has built up a 5.5% stake in Australian casino group Star Entertainment, reported the Australian Financial Review yesterday.
The latest share buying comes amid rumours of further financial difficulties for the operator of three casinos in Sydney, Brisbane and on the Gold Coast.
Late last week, the same paper reported the company could enter voluntary liquidation “within months” after it announced dwindling cash reserves.
Vinder-loo: Stake.com has acquired Denmark-licensed iCasino operator MocinoPlay and its VinderCasino brand for an undisclosed sum. The deal is dependent on approval from the Danish Gambling Authority.
On LinkedIn, MocinoPlay CEO Peter Eugen Clausen said the scale of the Stake platform was “extraordinary.”
Bragg Gaming enjoyed a 15% share price boost after it announced a new relationship with Caesars Entertainment, which it said elevated the company from being a content supplier to a tech partner.
The deal will see Caesars deploy Bragg’s RGS, while the supplier will also work with Caesars’ new in-house games development team.
Bragg said the deal was projected to help drive “double-digit” revenue and profitability for this year.
Struggling gaming affiliate Acroud has received approval from its bondholders for its previously announced debt restructuring, which will see it issue an SEK63m ($5.6m) super senior bond.
Going, going… Betfred has officially ended operations in Nevada, leaving Pennsylvania as its lone operational state.
Earnings in brief
Golden Matrix: The operator behind Meridianbet issued a preliminary earnings statement on Monday saying that FY24 revenue would come in at $150m, up 61% YoY. It said Europe ex-UK accounted for 60% of the total while the UK was worth 14%, with the remaining 26% coming from Asia, Africa and the Americas.
The company said the full earnings statement would come in March.
High Roller Technologies: The recently listed iCasino minnow said it saw a 30% QoQ increase in revenue in the last quarter to $7.5m, with first-time depositors up 54% and actives up 37%.
CEO Ben Clemes said the cash raised via the recent IPO has been plowed into marketing where the company was seeing “better-than-expected” returns.
He added that the company was at this moment going through the licensing process in Ontario.
The brief statement helped halt the recent share price slide but it remains over 35% below its float price from last November.
Analyst takes
Stop the rot: It has been a bruising three months for Red Rock Resorts, at least as far as its share price is concerned, down over 22% since its last reported earnings in November – a slide the team at Deutsche Bank said is not “entirely obvious.”
Among the factors playing into the slide are the “somewhat cautious” Q3 commentary, the “flat optics” for Q4 from the Locals GGR data and concerns over the impact of December’s sports results.
But, the team added, the headline Locals performance masks underlying strength and marketwide GGR growth that “remains healthy” despite the sports-betitng headwinds.
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Venture playground
Funding news
New year, new start: Jonathan Gauci, formerly at GiG and before that Cerberus, has launched a new online gaming platform business called Elantil, with the support of HappyHour.io and alongside co-founders John Debono, CTO, and Shaun Tabone who fills the role of CIO.
Gauci said on LinkedIn that after 22 years in the industry and having worked on developing six iCasino platforms, he thought it was time to “put this accumulated expertise to good use.”
The company has moved to appoint Nadiya Attard as CCO.
Holy cow: Meanwhile, remote gaming service tech provider Black Cow Technology has concluded a Series A funding round, bringing in JJK Partners as lead investor.
CEO Max Francis said the newly secured capital will accelerate Black Cow’s advancement of its multiplayer server technology suite.
Watch this space: More funding news comes from a new responsible gambling tech provider BettorWatch, which is emerging from a period of incubation under the auspices of Discerning Capital.
CEO and founder Bryan Price said the company agreed to acquire iProtekt for an undisclosed amount in Q4 last year.
He added that the business has secured funding through its partners which will “give it access to capital as it grows and scales.”
Block-buster: Similarly, gamefi provider Blockasset is set to announce a Series A funding round, according to a posting on Linkedin from CEO Alexis Zamboglou.
Growth company focus – Vor Interactive
Who are you? Vor Interactive was founded in January 2023 and is based in the UK, with offices in Liverpool and Lincoln.
The founders are sports and tech entrepreneurs Richard Acosta, CEO, and Matthew Batt, CTO, who are supported by chair Graham Martin and directors Farzad Peyman and Richard Clarke.
What’s the big idea? The company creates predictive data models and unique engagement widgets across live sports, esports and fantasy sports, says Acosta.
“The technology digs deep into match and player performance data and creates products that iGaming operators, platforms and affiliates can use to their advantage to drive client retention and engagement,” he explains.
One of these products is Vor Turbo, a widget that allows affiliates to drive traffic and generate additional revenue via an “intuitive iframe that combines bet builder functionality with live odds and stats.”
Funding backgrounder: Following initial bootstrapping by the founders, Vor has received seed investment from a games development company and is in the final stages of negotiation with an iGaming fund, an EIS fund and multiple strategic investors to close the first investment round.
In the meantime, the company has numerous partnerships in development and this demand has created an ambitious product roadmap that will see the launch of innovative new products in 2025.
Growth company news
ALT Sports Data, the San Diego-based leader in trading and consumer data for action, motor, alternative and emerging sports, has announced a landmark partnership with X Games.
The collaboration will enable regulated sports betting on X Games tentpole events.
Jelly Entertainment has announced a new content partnership deal with Microgame in Italy.
OSB and iCasino product design and development provider The Unit has unveiled a new brand identity.
B2B iGaming development studio RubyPlay has signed a content partnership agreement with Rush Street Interactive.
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Events calendar
Jan 20-23: iGB Affiliate, Barcelona
Jan 20-22: ICE, Barcelona
Feb 23-25: SIGMA, Eurasia Summit, Dubai
Feb 25-27: SBC Summit, Rio de Janeiro
Mar 12-13: Next: NYC 25, New York
Does your Bet Builder supplier or in-house Same Game Multi solution support 13 sports, including all of the main global betting sports, plus local variants and even eSports? Does your product allow your end-users to place both Pre-Match and In:Play Bet Builders across multiple sports? Can you offer cashout across all Bet Builder transactions? Does your solution use your own odds rather than another opinion of the market? If the answer to any of these is ‘no’ then come and find out why over 170 operators are using the Algosport Bet Builder solution today.
Algosport will be at ICE in Barcelona in January, so to book a no-nonsense conversation about improving your product or increasing your revenue, please drop us a line at ICE2025@algosport.co.uk or visit www.algosport.co.uk
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