Good morning. On the Weekender agenda:

• Gambling.com CEO says Barstool is no threat.

• Super Group boosted by African revenue rise.

• Kambi gets small share price bump on BetMGM UK news.

• Sector watch looks at Paysafe’s recent earnings.

• The BettingJobs Jobsboard features casino product manager and head of finance roles.

In every life we have some trouble, but when you worry, you make it double.

Non-compete

Gambling.com boss says he’s not worried by the prospects of Barstool competing on affiliate turf.

You’re barred: CEO Charles Gillespie claimed Barstool Sports was “not supposed to take any revenue from gambling companies” as part of its separation from Penn Entertainment. “They're not really going to be competition,” he added.

• “The implications with Barstool are also pretty fascinating, but they have essentially kind of come off of the map,” he said.

• Looking ahead to the launch of ESPN Bet, Gillespie said it “further destigmatizes” OSB in the eyes of a mainstream audience.

• “Everybody’s been waiting on ESPN to do something since 2018 and, finally, they have,” he added.

• The North American market is now the largest segment for Gambling.com, generating $13.4m, up 115% YoY, and pushing total revenues up 63% to $26m. Adj. EBITDA was up 161% to $9.4m.

Bonus boost: On the call, Gillespie noted the BonusFinder acquisition from Feb22 had “consistently outperformed expectations” and that a new fixed payment of €18m had been agreed in return for an early termination of the earnout agreement.

• As for further M&A, Gillespie said the company was involved in “lots of conversations” but there were no imminent deals.

• “We can grow this business without M&A, as we are demonstrating every single quarter,” he said.

Analyst takes: The team at B Riley suggested that per channel checks, US online operators are “increasingly looking to performance-based marketing solutions as less ROI-centric customer acquisition and some lower-cost channels are exhausted”.

• The analysts also noted the “significant” names entering the space including ESPN Bet, Caesars Palace and Fanatics.

🔥 No gamble: Gambling.com’s share price rally yesterday

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ICYMI

LosIngresos+Mas led this week with an exclusive interview with Jonathan Félix, CEO of Global Business Company of Peru, who says that the developments in Brazil act like the “locomotive for the whole region”.

The little state that could: In Straight to the Point this week, Steve Ruddock took a look at developments in Rhode Island. While the state is small in revenue terms, Ruddock suggests it could have an impact on the market that belies its size.

• “It will pressure other states and, perhaps more importantly, the gnarly precedents provide a roadmap for states that have struggled to pass online casino–online poker laws. Yes, it’s not ideal, but it’s far better than the alternative,” he writes.

Steve Ruddock has been a busy man as he pops up on the Gambling Files this week with Jon and Fintan to discuss ESPN Bet, WynnBet and other US developments.

One door shuts as another opens: In Earnings+More earlier this week we looked at the news that Fanatics was truly going live in four states.

In Compliance+More this week, 888’s admittance of a £2.9m fine paid to the Gibraltar authorities over the Middle Eastern VIP scandal gets some attention.

Wild life

Africa and the Middle East are the growth regions for Betway and Spin operator, Super Group.

Far flung: Growth in the African and Middle Eastern segment hit over 73%, rising to €110m and making the region Super Group’s second-biggest geographic sector. However, it continued to lose ground in its traditional stronghold of Ontario. While CEO Neal Menashe said Canada ex-Ontario had performed well, revenues from the North American region fell back 3.5% to €137m.

• CFO Alinda Van Wyk said the Ontario situation was due to the “ongoing transition” in the regulated market.

• Super Group is now live in nine US states and Menashe said the company’s continued “EBITDA investment” in the market cost it €13m over the period. 

• Van Wyk said US EBITDA losses were expected to come in at ~€70m for the year. Ex-US the business generated €84m of operational EBITDA, or €70m when the US is included, on total revenues of €321m.

No fear: Asked about the threat of new competition in the US, COO Richard Hasson said it “really doesn’t affect our strategy”. “It’s obviously a competitive market, but competition is what we see all over the world and, for us, it remains a very attractive opportunity,” he added.

🦸 Investors react well to Super Group’s Q2 earnings

The shares week

The news that BetMGM is launching in the UK gives a boost to provider Kambi.

Coming to America: MGM Resorts said yesterday it would be launching its first BetMGM-branded international operation in the US using its LeoVegas technology and platform. This gave a boost to supplier Kambi, which provides the sports-betting backend for LeoVegas.

🤷 Having initially risen 2.5%, Kambi settled the day up 1%

👀 Notably absent from the MGM Resorts press release was any quote from anyone at BetMGM or Entain. The latter’s only mention was that it remained the tech partner for BetMGM in the US and Canada.

• Gary Fritz, president at MGM Resorts International Interactive, said that, though the UK was a mature market, the hope was BetMGM would be a brand with a “distinct relevance” to both sports-betting and iCasino customers.

• Jefferies analysts said the “headline message” was that MGM “does not believe it needs Entain to satisfy its global ambition for the BetMGM brand”.

• “MGM is not ruling out the acquisition of Entain, but showing there is not a pressing 'need' to deal. Initially, this suggests a negative read-across to Entain takeout valuation implications,” the team added.

Earnings in brief

Scout Gaming: B2B operations came shining through as revenues from the segment more than quadrupled to SEK8.2m ($749k), helping total revenue rise 126% to SEK9.5m. B2C revenues fell 46% to SEK1.3m. EBITDA losses were cut to SEK6m from SEK23.4m in the prior-year period.

• During the period, Scout launched its games with Brazilian operator Cartola Express, part of the Grupo Globo media outfit.

Sector watch – payments

Paysafe continues to ride the wave of online gambling growth in the US.

The Penn is mightier than the sword: The recent news of Penn Entertainment securing the rights to launch ESPN Bet will have been music to the ears of the sales team at Paysafe, suggested CEO Bruce Lowthers. Speaking on the company’s Q2 earnings call with analysts, he noted that Penn is an existing digital wallet client.

• “We've now expanded our relationship, with our e-commerce capability currently live in 16 states,” he said.

In North American iGaming generally, Lowthers said Paysafe continues to benefit “not only from market expansion but also through our success in cross-selling into existing customer base”. He noted that gambling now represents around 30% of total revenues of $402m.

• Another market where Paysafe has enjoyed some success is Ontario, Canada, where the company is working with Bally’s as well as three Canadian lotteries having launched the Skrill-branded digital wallet. 

• “We've added this popular and widely accepted regional payment method to our product offering when the Ontario market launched last year,” said Lowthers.

• Alongside further growth in LatAm – including expanding its product offering with existing clients such as Betsson – Lowthers said it had also picked up a key client on the fantasy sports side with PrizePicks.

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Newslines

Caesars has launched a horseracing betting app, Caesars Racebook, in New York.

Hard Rock has gone live with the new Hard Rock Bet app in New Jersey.

Rush Street Interactive has been selected by the Delaware Lottery to be the state’s online gaming operator for an initial five-year term with the option to renew for five more one-year increments.

Calendar

• Aug 22: Better Collective (e), Catena Media

• Aug 23: Better Collective

• Casino Product Manager – Caribbean

• Head of Finance - Middle East 

• Head of Group HR – Africa / Europe / Middle East 

An +More Media publication. 

For sponsorship inquiries email scott@andmore.media.