Entain leads hunt for PointsBet Australia
Entain leads hunt for PointsBet AustraliaEntain leads PointsBet Australia race, DraftKings’ pay awards, Flutter sets dual listing date, startup focus – Golden Heart +MoreGood morning. On today’s agenda:
Australia, the chance of a lifetime. Entain in PointsBet Australia bidOperator is looking to expand its Australian footprint via PointsBet acquisition. Buy and build: Entain is heading up the list of bidders for PointsBet’s up-for-sale Australian arm, according to multiple sources. A buyout would augment its existing Ladbrokes and Neds operations in the country, with sources suggesting the price tag will likely be lower than the previously touted A$250m.
Background: PointsBet confirmed a newspaper report in late December that it was in discussions with Betr regarding a potential deal for its Australian trading business. It said at the time that discussions were “incomplete and preliminary in nature”. What’s it worth? The Australian element of PointsBet's business generated revenue of A$95m in H123 and a negative adj. EBITDA of A$20m, 25% worse than the prior-year period. PointsBet said the business had faced a tougher competitive environment in H222, not least from high-spending new entrant Betr.
Reaction: A spokesperson for Entain offered no comment. A PointsBet spokesperson said when “proposals for a buyout or takeover arise we consider each on their merit and their potential to maximize value for our shareholders”.
** SPONSOR’S MESSAGE ** Venture capital firm Yolo Investments manages in excess of €600m in capital across 80 exciting fintech, gaming and blockchain companies. The Yolo Investments' Gaming fund, regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, has taken positions in fast-growth suppliers and operators, including Dabble and Enteractive. Yolo Investments (yolo.io) wants to hear from readers of this newsletter. Get in touch with your pitch, or for a chat about innovative products which can plug into our investment ecosystem. DraftKings’ pay awardsFounders take $1 salaries but receive multi-million dollar bonuses and share awards. 💰 Pay dirt: Jason Robins, Matt Kalish and Paul Liberman each opted to receive only $1 in salary for 2022 but bonuses and share awards meant total compensation between the three hit $130m.
✈️ Lifestyles of the rich and famous: Robins’ package included $1m compensation to pay for personal security at the offices and his home as well a requirement that he and his family only fly by private jet. Flutter sets the dateA formal resolution to facilitate a dual listing in the US will be put before shareholders next month. All those who say aye: Flutter said it had received “very strong support” from institutions representing a “significant majority” of Flutter’s shareholder base for the proposal to seek a dual listing in the US. The company said it will put forward resolutions at its AGM on April 27 that will make the necessary changes to its articles of association to facilitate the move.
The week aheadThe latest edition of the E+M Data Month will be sent on Tuesday. Looking into the latest monthly data on FanDuel’s iCasino operations in the three main states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Jersey, this edition looks into what appears to be the company’s incremental market share progress in two of the three.
Better CorrectiveOn Thursday, we incorrectly stated and misascribed comments that Better Collective’s VIP levels had dropped to below 20% vs. 50% in 2018. This was incorrect. The number was referring to the company’s single company exposure. We apologize unreservedly for the error. Earnings in briefSTS Q4 revenues rose 43% YoY to PLN167m while adj. EBITDA surged by 122% to PLN83m, thanks to a renewed focus on its home market after exiting the UK and Estonia markets this year. Analyst takesInspired: JMP noted the deal announced late last week with Aristocrat that will see Inspired develop virtual NFL content, and pointed out that this might help Inspired reach an agreement across its virtual sports offering with FanDuel.
The shares weekWhat price a fine? Kindred’s share price appeared to suffer little ill effects from the news last week of the £7.1m fine levied by the UK Gambling Commission for various RG and AML failures. 🤔 Kindred’s share enjoys a good week despite the news flow On socialYou made your bed: Chris Grove went on Twitter late last week to make the point that the current bad press coverage of the sports-betting sector sees a lack of pushback with no one prepared to play defense as opposed to offense. “Who is speaking for the industry?” he asked. 1/ We are ~six months into a wave of negative mainstream coverage of sports betting.
The coverage mixes a handful of legit observations w/ misunderstandings, misstatements, misrepresentations, and hyperbole.
As bad as the coverage is, our industry largely made this bed. Startup focus – Golden Heart GamesWho, what, where and when: The Boston-based iCasino developer and operator of promotional games for charity was founded in August 2020 by Steve Kane and Jeremy Shea. “Promotional games as we offer them are innovative but the category is actually quite old and for decades has been legal everywhere in the USA,” says Kane. Funding backgrounder: Investors include Sharp Alpha, Accomplice, Boston Seed Capital, NED and several family offices and individuals. The company hasn’t disclosed details about its funding. The pitch: Kane, who acts as CEO, says the opportunity is two-fold; first, by leveraging the ‘legal, everywhere, right now’ opportunity afforded by promotional games, capturing the fun and engaging aspects of social games, and, second, by doing well by doing good.
What will success look like? Success for Golden Heart Games is to be a huge, popular, profitable, promotional games, iGaming company and platform. “No more, no less,” says Kane, who adds Golden Heart could become “one of the most reliable, continuous, significant sources of funding for USA non-profits”. Happyhour.io startup survey
**SPONSOR’S MESSAGE** Random Colour Animal creates intuitive, heuristically designed back-office systems and dashboards. Our UI and UX expertise helps iGaming clients achieve greater user engagement, service speed, team productivity and customer satisfaction. We research, wireframe, interactively prototype, test, design and brand in pre-development phase, enabling a smooth technical hand-over. Why you need to upgrade your back-office: https://randomcolouranimal.com/leading-from-the-back/ M&A NewslinesA sale of Belgian sports-betting firm Betfirst is likely after parent media group Sagevas asked Rothschild Bank to look into its strategic options, SBC reports. Betfirst is one of the top three operators in Belgium with both online and retail operations. NewslinesFanDuel will expand its retail offering in Maryland after partner Whitman Gaming was granted a sports-wagering facility license. Gauselmann has opened a fifth casino in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. What we’re readingYouthquake: The Las Vegas crowd is getting younger. On socialCalendar
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