Jam today
Gambling.com buys OddsJam for up to $160m
Odds data and offers provider buyout is the affiliate’s largest transaction to date.
In +More careers: Fertitta tipped for Italian ambassador post.
WagerWire pulls in high-profile investors in a new funding round.
VICI debt deal could spur more activity after “tepid” 2024, say analysts.
Esports: GG.Bet boasts of global reach after Counter-Strike tourno deal.
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Jam session
All mod cons: Gambling.com has snapped up real-time odds data and offers provider OddsJam for up to $160m in what is the listed affiliate company’s largest acquisition to date.
The deal is expected to close on January 1 with the payment of an initial $70m of cash and $10m of shares.
The shares rose nearly 18% on the news yesterday, leaving them over 50% up for the past month. YTD the shares are up 64%.
This is the modern world: OddsHoldings is a portfolio of companies built on top of low-latency data. OddsJam, the largest brand presence in the ecosystem, is a consumer-facing app offering arbitrage and standard betting opportunities that it believes offer the player a positive expected outcome.
CEO Matt Restivo noted OddsJam began as an idea hatched by two Stanford roommates, Ankit Goyal and Alex Monahan.
He said the sale of the business was a “testament to the relentless execution and startup grit” of the OddsHoldings team.
“The parallel with Gambling.com is almost too perfect,” he added
And all the time, we’re getting rich: Gambling.com said the deal would be immediately accretive. Odds Holdings will generate adj. EBITDA of $12m in 2024 from revenues of $26m. The new owner said it would expect to grow that adj. EBITDA total by at least 20% in 2025.
The company added that the acquisition would be another stepping stone towards its long-term goal of generating $100m in adj. EBITDA.
The analysts at Macquarie said the acquisition gives Gambling.com a “best-in-class tech platform for real-time sports-betting odds data” with the lowest latency across nearly 300 sportsbooks.
The team noted the revenue stream from OddsJam would be independent of its existing gambling affiliate business.
The team at Jefferies said they believed the subscription-based revenue model and US-centric B2C business made this an “appropriate acquisition” for Gambling.com to “broaden its capabilities.”
The gift: As part of the deal, Wells Fargo has agreed to provide a $100m senior secured loan and has added a revolving credit facility to Gambling.com’s existing credit agreement.
Gambling.com’s largest acquisition previous to yesterday’s announcement was the purchase of the Freebets.com assets from XLMedia in April this year for up to $42.5m.
Before that it acquired BonusFinder.com for up to €41m in 2022.
Didn’t we have a nice time: In its Q3 earnings, Gambling.com reported revenues up 37% YoY to $32.1m while adj. EBITDA rose over 100% to $12.6m.
At the time, the company raised its FY24 forecast, with revenue expected to come in at $125m-$127m while adj. EBITDA was predicted to come in at $46.5m-$48.5m.
Speaking to E+M, CEO Charles Gillespie said his company bought OddsJam because it was a “phenomenal business because we can leverage our skills to help them grow faster.”
“It gives us diversification,” he added. “Subscription businesses are so much easier to forecast.”
Field of vision: He said the widening scope of potential acquisitions for Gambling.com was signalled six or nine months ago and that the company has been looking at more than just pure-play affiliate businesses for “quite a while.”
“It’s still our goal to be the largest and most important gambling affiliate company,” he said. “That remains on our to-do list but we have realized we can do a lot of other things.”
Love you guys: Gillespie added that the OddsHoldings platform had been rebuilt three times in four years to “get the latency down, and I love that.”
“There is so much we can do with that. It doesn’t take too much creativity to think of more things.”
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+More
DAZN is reported by the Australian Financial Review to be weighing up a bid for Foxtel in Australia, which operates a pay television business and streaming platforms Kayo Sports and Binge.
The paper noted that CEO Shay Segev is currently in Australia and holding meetings about a potential deal.
Foxtel is 65% owned by News Corp and 35% owned by Telstra. It was put up for sale in August.
While discussions are ongoing, the paper also noted that Rupert Murdoch is paying his first visit to Australia in six years.
Caesars Entertainment has announced the closing of the previously announced sale of the LINQ Promenade to a joint venture formed between TPG Real Estate and Acadia Realty Trust for $275m.
Concurrent with the closing of the transaction, Caesars made a $275m voluntary prepayment of a term loan due in 2030 with the proceeds from the transaction.
The waiting period for potential antitrust violations regarding AGS’s acquisition by PE outfit Brightstar has expired, meaning one more hurdle has been cleared. The deal is expected to be completed in H225.
Read across
Wakes up, smells coffee: The BC.GAME furore has maybe caught the eye of the UK government, given the comments from new gambling minister Baroness Twycross at the GambleAware conference last week.
As reported by Compliance+More, talking on the subject of gambling advertising, Twycross noted she was “aware of the increasing prevalence” of ‘white label’ operators using football in the UK to advertise to consumers outside of the country.
+More careers
Arriverderci: Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Fertitta Entertainment conglomerate that includes Golden Nugget B&M casinos and the Houston Rockets, is expected to be President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for US ambassador to Italy.
Fertitta is a longtime donor to the Republican Party and is a personal friend of Trump.
As reported earlier in the week, Super Group CCO Richard Hasson is to leave the firm after 13 years. He will depart in H125.
BetMGM had appointed Casey Hubris as the company’s new CMO. Hubris was most recently at Rocket Mortgage as the senior VP of brand experiences and strategic partnerships.
Yolo Entertainment: A swathe of new appointments has been announced by Yolo, starting with the promotion of Sandra Vask to COO after six years with the company, most recently as head of legal.
Amy Howard has been appointed director of retention, Alexander McLoughlin is the new director of core markets and Anthony Cabrera is now the director of Yolo’s Bitcasino brand.
Novomatic: The slot provider’s US subsidiary is to be led by chief compliance officer Sabine Stoppel and managing director Jakob Rothwangl. Current US CEO Alexander Merwald is to shift his focus to CEO of Novomatic’s South Africa business.
Wynn Resorts has moved to strengthen its investor relations team with senior VP of corporate finance and treasurer Price Karr expanding his role to include the position of senior VP of investor relations, while Lauren Seiler has also been appointed as VP of investor relations.
Director of Operations – Malta
Vietnam Country Manager – Bangkok
Senior Affiliate Manager – Tbilisi, Georgia
Wire service
New names: WagerWire has completed a new funding round for an unannounced sum with a slew of new investors joining the cap table, including ‘Big Short’ investor Danny Moses, ex-Pinnacle CEO Paris Smith and GoodPaper Ventures.
They join current investors Eberg Capital, 305 Ventures and former Simplebet founder Scott Marshall.
Doctor will see you now: WagerWire was founded by three UCLA grads – Zach Doctor, Guy Dotan, and Travis Geiger – in 2021. It is a consumer-facing app that allows bettors to buy and sell previously placed sports bets and profit from real-time market movements.
The company previously announced a $3m funding round in July 2022, which was led by Eberg Capital.
Connections
Altenar will integrate its sportsbook solution into BetStarters iGaming platform in emerging gaming markets. BetStarters is focused on providing its white-label platform to B2C operators in Africa, Asia and South America.
Delasport and Betable have entered a strategic partnership under which the latter will use Delasport’s sportsbook platform in the Philippines and UK.
Hub88 has integrated online casino games from Playnetic Games on its platform in Europe and Latin America.
Gamanza Games is launching its arcade-style online casino games with Inbet in Bulgaria.
Octoplay’s iCasino games will be available in Sweden under a content agreement with Svenska Spel.
Stakelogic’s social gaming content including online slots and live dealers will launch on GAN’s platform in North America.
Ainsworth’s slot titles will be available on Capecod’s iGaming platform in Italy under a strategic partnership.
BGaming will supply its games portfolio to Solverde online casino platform in Portugal.
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Analyst takes
VICI Properties: The gaming REIT’s $750m of new notes announced this week were "attractively priced” for a business that, with $3.3bn of available liquidity, is now “well positioned to deploy capital accretively,” suggested the team at JMP.
The team added that rents have “proven durability” across cycles, backed by long-term leases from established operators and with “compounded growth potential.”
They also noted that VICI’s future debt issuance is expected to benefit from a recently received credit rating upgrade, suggesting little headwinds on the re-financing front.
Warm bath: Still, deal activity for the company was “tepid” in 2024, with VICI deploying only $1.1bn through the third quarter vs. $4.8bn in FY23, and the analysts noted management has suggested the deal environment has been “heavily influenced” by interest rate volatility.
They added that VICI’s operator relationships “could spur” additional growth opportunities, similar to the currently underway Venetian refresh.
Sector watch – esports
GG, it’s been a BLAST: Esports-first operator GG.Bet, in an interview with Esports Insider revealed a global reach of 4.2 billion for 2024, with 3.8 billion owing to its partnership with Counter-Strike tournament BLAST Premier.
Further highlights from the company’s 2024 recap included reduced churn, with bounce rates during tournaments close to zero.
Daily betting average during BLAST Premier CS:2 tournaments were 14% higher than mid-season.
And average total stake during tournaments was 17% higher than mid-season.
A knockout? GG.Bet is one of the largest gambling sponsors in esports, and esports will continue to be at the forefront of its sponsorship strategy.
Perhaps the most notable figure from GG.Bet was the 471% increase in FTDs for GG.Bet Ukraine on the day of the first Usyk vs Fury fight after the brand’s event sponsorship.
Esports in a land down under: Where bets flow, it's little wonder. PandaScore has signed a partnership with Australian gambling giant Tabcorp to become the operator’s dedicated esports data and odds provider.
The move will see Counter-Strike: 2, Dota 2 and League of Legends added with ambitions to broaden the offering in the near future.
The deal will see data and odds rolled out across web, mobile, retail and on terminals in licensed venues.
Tabcorp commented: “This partnership is another step in creating the ultimate sports entertainment experience for our customers.”
B2B innovation at the forefront: Predominant news in esports comes from B2B sportsbook providers that continue to create new products in an attempt to drive both demand and margin for customers.
Betby has announced additional player prop markets to address a “gap in the market.” It outlines that player props and rolling tournament odds are standard in traditional sports but nascent in esports.
The company will offer Counter-Strike markets such as Tournament MVP and AWP Kill Comparisons, as well as Dota 2 markets such as Most Popular Hero picked and banned, as well as Hero with Highest Kill Death Assist ratio.
Betby has outlined the markets will be available on all tiers of esports tournaments, including B and C tier, not just major events.
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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
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