FEATURE
‘ EXPECT MORE DEALS ’: IT ’ S M & A ALL THE WAY FOR AFFILIATES
When iGB Affiliate last wrote about the trend toward consolidation among affiliates in May , we said it showed no signs of abating and indeed so it has proved with some headline-grabbing deals having been completed in the intervening months . By Scott Longley .
PROMINENT AMONG RECENT
DEALS by the firms spearheading the consolidation drive in the igaming affiliate space are three more from Catena Media .
In late May the Stockholm-listed firm announced a deal to buy Newcasinos for a total potential price of € 11.9m . Following on from that — and after confirming it had raised a further € 50m through a bond issue in June — it added the Delilah Holdings affiliate assets for a maximum of € 6.45m and then most recently it snapped up the sports betting affiliate Bettingpro and related assets for £ 13.9m (€ 15.7m ).
By our count , this makes a total of 22 deals completed in less than three years , making Catena Media the most obvious centrifugal force within the sector ( see table below ). Notably , since it paid $ 6m for the Right Casino assets in November 2015 , the price tags on the deals have been moving upwards . Of the five deals completed this year the average potential sum paid out has been € 11.1m ( see Figure 1 ).
In the affiliate business , as much as in other areas of the online gambling sector , scale counts and Catena isn ’ t the only player in the market intent on growing bigger through acquisitions . Also recently making a splash is Better Collective , the Copenhagenbased affiliate business and the company
Figure 1 : Catena Media affiliate acquisitions
Acquisition target
Date of acquisition
Total potential fee
Main market
Finix Invest Nov ' 14 $ 6m Scandinavia LJFK Ltd Mar ' 15 Unknown Netherlands Promo6000 Mar ' 15 Unknown Norway Stay Media Jul ' 15 € 2m Sweden Arctic Marketing Aug ' 15 € 0.3m Finland Cornvinus Aug ' 15 € 0.65m UK La Luna Sept ' 15 € 0.45m Netherlands Good Game Sept ' 15 € 1.5m Finland Right Casino Nov ' 15 $ 6m UK Unnamed Italian / Belgium-facing sites Mar ' 16 € 9m Italy / Belgium Wonko Media Mar ' 16 SEK32m Sweden Ask Gamblers Apr ' 16 € 15m UK German-facing network June ' 16 € 6.5m Germany Spelbloggare . se Jul ' 16 € 5m Sweden SBAT Oct ' 16 € 13.5m UK CasinoUK Nov ' 16 € 10.6m UK PlayNJ Dec ' 16 $ 45m US Slotsia Feb ' 17 € 8.5m Sweden Online Media ( UK ) Ltd May-17 £ 11.7m (€ 13.2m ) UK Newcasinos . com May-17 € 11.9m Sweden / Norway Delilah Holdings Jun-17 € 6.45 Germany Bettingpro . com Jul-17 £ 13.9m (€ 15.7m ) UK / Australia
34 iGB Affiliate Issue 64 AUG / SEP 2017