Digital sports media group Better Collective held its first-quarter webcast on Wednesday, with co-founder and CEO Jesper Søgaard highlighting recent acquisitions of AceOdds and Playmaker Capital and the company’s commercial success in North Carolina after the launch of online sports betting.
“The integration is progressing as planned, and we are very excited to have welcomed the Playmaker Capital team to the Better Collective group,” Søgaard said. “I am very pleased with our performance in North America, where we have never been stronger positioned commercially.
“Turning attention to the North American market, we’re delighted with the progress made in first quarter,” Søgaard, said noting the success brought by North Carolina’s recent launch and the Super Bowl.
Søgaard also presented key figures from the first-quarter interim report released on Tuesday. Revenues and EBITDA for the period were €95 million ($103 million) and €29 million ($31.5 million), respectively. Compared to the corresponding period in 2023, figures represent an increase of 8 percent and a drop of 13 percent in revenues and EBITDA, respectively.
Søgaard also addressed a recent search engine update, which could threaten the company’s media partnerships and rankings. “On May 5, Google activated a new policy focusing on third-party content across a variety of commercial categories,” he said.
Many listeners were concerned with Google’s new policy and its adverse effects on media partnerships. Better Collective responded that it is in the early days and difficult to estimate the net impact of this at present. Other questions covered the acquisitions of AceOdds and Playmaker Capital, with the company commenting that “they are very different in nature.”
“To summarize the quarter, we saw solid performance across the group with good recurring revenue growth,” Søgaard said.
