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Better Collective Acquires Skycon Limited and Upgrades its Financial Targets for 2023

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In order to realise the vision of becoming the Leading Digital Sports Media Group, Better Collective expands its efforts within digital display advertising by acquiring Skycon Limited for a total consideration of up to 45m GBP.

Upgrade of financial targets 2023

Skycon Limited will be consolidated into the Better Collective Group. Better Collective upgrades its financial targets for 2023 as follows:

Revenue of 305-315m EUR (previous 290-300m EUR)

EBITDA before special items of 95-105m EUR (previous 90-100m EUR)

Net debt to EBITDA before special items <2.0 (unchanged)

About Skycon Limited

Skycon Limited (Skycon) is a British company founded in 2017 and is run out of Newcastle-under-Lyme, England. The company specialises in display advertising with an “audience-based” approach, which is paid advertising on channels such as sports media. Skycon’s approach is highly complementary to Better Collective’s existing Paid Media approach with a “search engine-based” approach. The acquisition will increase the addressable market for Better Collective’s Paid Media division and will further increase its value proposition towards the Group’s diverse business partners.

Better Collective will integrate the business into its existing Paid Media operations and will take over Skycon’s substantial recurring revenue share database. Skycon has seen great growth, which Better Collective expects to fuel further with several cross-selling synergies, while also improving its own business through operational synergies.

Synergy highlights

  • Skycon has solely worked with one sportsbook and Better Collective will expand this to its global network of sportsbooks.
  • Better Collective will be able to broaden the geographical scope of Skycon for instance into the US.
  • Better Collective will redirect future new depositing customers (NDCs) to its best-in-class global sportsbook agreements, which will increase the value per future NDC delivered.
  • Skycon will be utilised on the AdTech platform which Better Collective is currently building.

Jesper Søgaard, Co-founder & CEO of Better Collective, said: “We have invested heavily in growing our Paid Media division to reach its current significant scale, while we also have invested in moving revenues to recurring revenue share contracts. During the past year, our efforts have proven successful and acquiring Skycon will be highly synergistic to this journey. Skycon is a great business, which is built on Better Collective’s favored revenue share model. It is a perfect fit as we can leverage our leading skill set within media buying to grow Skycon’s revenues. We also see a clear path to further growth as the asset can be scaled across more of our business partners, into new territories, and optimized with our unrivaled first party data in sports media. This acquisition will further deepen our moat.”

Transaction details

Better Collective will pay up to 45m GBP on a cash and debt free basis, including an upfront cash consideration of 25m GBP and up to 20m GBP in earn outs. The earn outs are based on certain financial performance targets in the 12 months post closing period. The acquisition will be funded by cash, and the earn-out is estimated to be at least 50% financed by the existing revenue share database.

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Flexion Reports Revenue Increase of 9% for 2024

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Flexion, the games marketing company, has announced that its revenue grew 9% to year-end December 2024. The growth is attributed to the Company’s success in the alternative app store market.

Since its IPO in 2018, the company has built a well-positioned games marketing business around the alternative stores and grown annual revenue 50-fold to almost US$100 million. Its game portfolio represents several billion US$ in gaming IP for alternative market partners like Samsung, Amazon, Huawei, OneStore and Xiaomi.

“With the Digital Markets Act (DMA) coming into force in Europe and recent legal actions in the US, mobile game developers have felt a new-found freedom to explore their market options. We’ve already moved beyond the era when Google and Apple controlled everything. Developers are looking for alternatives that offer better margins, and additional audiences and revenue. Partnering with Flexion opens up a range of market channels with very little up-front investment,” said Jens Lauritzson, CEO of Flexion.

Flexion currently distributes more than 30 high-profile titles on the alternative stores. Top-tier games in the Flexion portfolio make on average US$ 10 million a year based on Q4 2024 run rate. That’s income in addition to their Google and Apple revenue with a business model that adds little to their costs.

In Q4 2024, Flexion-serviced games were, on average, generating 9.3% through the alternative stores of the revenue they made on Google Play. This is a significant boost for Flexion’s partners without major costs or effort.

“If you scale for the size of the stores, the alternatives massively out-performed Google in Q4 for our games. This is exciting both for Flexion’s business and for the future of the games industry as a whole. We’re seeing the beginning of a sea change in games marketing,” Jens said.

“We’re seeing just the beginnings of a major shift in how top-tier developers address their markets. Using Flexion to access alternative stores is an easy first step into the post- Google and Apple world. Many developers are already looking at their options beyond that and Flexion will be right there with them providing the technology and expertise they need to maximise the potential of their games,” Jens added.

The post Flexion Reports Revenue Increase of 9% for 2024 appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Players Reclaim Close to $7M Through AskGamblers Complaint Service in 2024

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The latest AskGamblers Complaint Service report for 2024 has officially been released. The comprehensive report highlights the most important accomplishments and records of the AskGamblers Complaint Service team for the previous year.

In 2024, The AGCS team (formerly known as AGCCS) managed to return $6,890,547.11 to players. Over 7259 players turn to AskGamblers, submitting complaints against 1114 casino brands. Out of all the accepted and processed complaints, the team had a 68% resolution success rate. One of the notable milestones that reached was returning a total of $70 million to the members.

Dijana Radunović, General Manager at AskGamblers, said: “It’s amazing to see the trust players put in us year after year, and we’re able to repay them by helping them recover their funds from operators or solve other related issues. We’ve had another successful year, with a few records broken and amazing milestones achieved and we can’t wait to see what lies in store in the years ahead.”

The post Players Reclaim Close to $7M Through AskGamblers Complaint Service in 2024 appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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SlotsCalendar Announces its Second Awards Edition at iGC Malaga 2025

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SlotsCalendar, a leading name and tastemaker in iGaming, has announced the second edition of the SlotsCalendar Awards. Winners will be announced during the iGC Malaga event in May 2025.

These awards are rapidly gaining significance in the iGaming world as SlotsCalendar’s steady growth, success, and player-centric mentality represent the community’s interest.

Players have approximately a month to vote between the 10th of April and the 12th of May.

For its 2025 edition, the SlotsCalendar Awards Gala returns to the iGaming Club Conference in Malaga, happening on May 28th. The Awards categories for this year are as follows:

• Game Studio of the Year

• The Slot Everyone’s Talking About

• Star Slot in the Making

• Casino of the Year

• Excellence in Bonus Variety

• Industry Standard in Responsible Gambling

• Live Casino of the Year

• Best Sports Betting Platform

• Best New Casino

• Best Crypto Casino

While the idea of iGaming Awards is not new to the industry, the SlotsCalendar Awards are unique for a simple reason: winners are voted by players from the entire iGaming community.

The uniqueness of these awards makes them particularly important in iGaming. Placing the decision-making strictly in the hands of the player is a fundamental shift in the iGaming community.

SlotsCalendar CEO Viorel Stan said: “It’s truly an honor and a privilege to see how our SlotsCalendar Awards have evolved. Last year’s inaugural edition was a crowning achievement for us. It proved how vast and involved our community is, creating a level of engagement that made us incredibly proud. Being able to return to the iGC and reward some of iGaming’s luminaries in the name of the SlotsCalendar Community is beyond gratifying.”

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