THE NORDICS
The last year saw a wave of M&A
engulf the affi liate space Why is
the consolidation play unfolding
now, and why are Nordic-founded
companies – both as acquirers
and those being acquired – so
prominent in this process?
EB: I don’t know why the consolidation
didn’t start earlier. My best guess is that
most affiliate businesses were started by
accident rather than with a clear strategy,
hence most people focused on running their
own shows and didn’t hire a lot of people
or try to acquire each other. When the
industry started to mature, investors and
experienced business people starting to see
the opportunities and partnered up with the
existing affiliates.
When a few larger acquisitions were
undertaken and made public, everyone
started to ask themselves the question:
“Why don’t we do this?”, and more
started doing it. A couple of years ago the
multiples were really low and pretty much
any deal that could be done was worth
doing. Today, things have changed and
the prices are, as you said, significantly
Michael Holmberg
higher, but there are still plenty of
exciting prospects.
The reason Nordic-founded companies
are so prominent is probably the same as
why they are so prominent when it comes
to betting operators. There is a strong
culture of gaming and online businesses
in Sweden, so before the acquisitions
started, there were already many
providers such as NetEnt and Evolution.
Sweden has a strong history of producing
successful entrepreneurs in the IT sector,
as evidenced by globally known companies
like Skype and Spotify. It’s therefore
not that surprising that that the Swedes,
together with their Nordic neighbours,
also are very prominent in the industry of
igaming affiliation.
“A couple of years ago the multiples were really low and
pretty much any deal that could be done was worth
doing. Today, things have changed”
Erik Bergman, Catena Media
affiliates active in the region who came
from Scandinavia. We have also seen
experienced people from the operators
move across to the affiliate side and then
it went from there. It got a lot of exposure
in the Nordic media and even more
people got interested in the possibilities.
MH: Many of the big operators, such as
Betsson and Unibet for instance, originate
from Sweden, as well as leading game
Regarding last year’s M&A, we think
it just proves how young the igaming
affiliate industry really is. What we are
seeing now started happening 10 years
ago on the operator side. Catena Media’s
entrance on Nasdaq Stockholm further
accelerated this process, and had a strong
effect on the public perception of our
industry. It’s getting more professional
with every day that passes.
Ory Weihs
iGB Affi liate Issue 62 APR/MAY 2017
37