Earnings+More - Eminence tightens its grip on Entain
Eminence tightens its grip on EntainEntain committee move, Mojo pivots, startup focus – OddsJam +More
When I say jump, you say how high. Activist influence at EntainThe turn of the screw: Activist investor Eminence Capital – which recently gained a place on the board at Entain for its co-founder Ricky Sandler – has now also been given a seat on a new capital allocation committee, which is set to have huge influence on how the company spends its money.
Taking over the reins: The committee news is a sign of the growing influence at Entain of activist investors. Eminence came to prominence last summer when it went public with its gripes over the company’s bolt-on M&A strategy, and specifically the €750m deal for Polish operator STS.
Influencers: Sandler was invited onto the board at the start of January and immediately joined the key committee that will choose the next CEO following the sudden departure of previous incumbent Jette Nygaard-Andersen in December.
Another fine mess: The formation of a capital allocation committee wouldn’t have been necessary if the board had, in the words of one corporate adviser speaking to E+M on condition of anonymity, “been doing its job properly.” Giving Eminence a say over capital allocation decisions was a “sign of weakness,” they added.
Impatient capital: Eminence’s prominence in board decisions is an uncertainty that will impact the search for a CEO. “Some hedge fund managers can be very short-term driven, how does that work if you are trying to build long-term sustainable growth?” asked one corporate development expert.
ICE London 2024 will be MEGA with Soft2Bet! We look forward to showcasing our Motivational Engineering Gaming Application (MEGA), the best gamification package in the iGaming industry. We also invite partners and delegates to visit our brand new stand, where our senior leaders will be hosting workshops that will highlight our state-of-the-art technology, platform and services and of course MEGA. See you at Stand S6-210! https://www.soft2bet.com/news/soft2bets-mega-is-coming-to-ice-london +MoreAll go: There is movement on the legislative front in Georgia, where a bill had advanced albeit with a constitutional amendment kicker; Mississippi, where another OSB bill has passed the House; New York, where Addabbo isn’t letting go on iCasino easily; and Illinois, where iCasino is also in the frame. See tomorrow’s Compliance+More for details. Allwyn has announced an investment in Instant Win Games in return for a 70% stake. In the year to April 2023, IWG reported revenues up 26% to £24.1m while pre-tax profit was up 19% to £17.9m. Co-founders Rhydian Fisher and Simon Bucknall will retain their respective roles as CEO and COO. Flutter-owned Timeform has announced PA Betting Services is to become the official supplier and managing partner of its B2B services. The week aheadBig Wednesday: All eyes will be on Kindred, which is currently subject to a $2.8bn bid from French lottery monopoly FDJ. Later the same day, Wynn Resorts and Red Rock Resorts come to the earnings table, while Disney’s meeting with the analysts might provide some ESPN color.
By the numbersNew York: Jefferies analysts pointed out that in the first four weeks of January handle increased 12% while GGR was up 34%, with strong starts to the year from both DraftKings (54% up YoY for the same period) and FanDuel (up 34%).
Careers+MoreThe big move: 888 has confirmed the appointment of Sean Wilkins as CFO with immediate effect. Wilkins joins from Superbet where he was also CFO and which was his first job in the betting and gaming sector. Before that, he worked as group CFO for Big Bus Tours.
Another high-profile director is leaving Entain as it has been announced that Peter Marcus, who was leading the company RG efforts, is departing the firm. Ryan Collinge has joined GiG as senior VP of business development. He joins from Blueprint Gaming where he was previously group director. You can see the transfer deadline day video here. The managing director of Brazilian operator VaiDeBob, Thomas Carvalhaes, has left the firm. Former Oddschecker executive Guy Harding, latterly commercial director at Legend, has joined Better Collective as senior director for media partnerships. Playson has promoted Vsevolod Lapin to deputy CEO. Lapin has been at the company since 2017 and was appointed COO in April 2022. Training day: Entain has launched a Data Academy training program in the UK, which it hopes will provide upskilling opportunities around the best use of data across the company. The program will kick off with an intake of 20 Entain employees on courses that will last more than a year. What everyone is watchingESPN’s Outside the Lines broadcast a four-part “examination of sports betting” starting with ‘The State of Sports Betting in the US’ last Thursday, with the rest of the shows running over the weekend. Meanwhile, 60 Minutes is set to broadcast a piece that will uncover the “growing and often addictive hold online sports betting has on young men.” Mojo pivot, Fliff transactionLosing your Mojo: The athlete trading startup Mojo is to concentrate on building pricing models to be sold to other sportsbooks and has sold much of its technology platform to social betting/sweepstakes operator Fliff.
That ain’t working, that’s the way you do it: Mojo has retained 30 employees and has hired former Circa Sportsbook director Matt Metcalf as chief risk officer to spearhead its move into B2B provision alongside co-founders Vinit Bharara and Bart Stein. Bharara told Sportico the new aim was to “try to be the best” in originating odds. “It’s a very big focus on players, and that includes parlays.”
Read ’em and sweep: A source close to Fliff, meanwhile, said the company had been looking for a platform and “strong tech team” to build out its offering. They added there are no plans to become a “classic OSB operator” and it would concentrate on “delivering the best possible social betting/sweepstakes product.”
Join a Winning Team at InclineBet, the choice of industry leaders like Four Winds Casino, FanDuel, and Delaware North. We’re committed to partnering with you, offering expert User Acquisition, CRM, and Creative Services tailored for the gaming industry. Elevate your brand with our proven strategies. Unlock your iGaming advantage at InclineBet. Earnings in briefEveryMatrix: Helped by its two largest platform deals to date with the Hungarian lottery and Bet-at-home, which both went live at the end of last year, the sports and iCasino supplier saw Q4 revenues soar 87% to €36m. EBITDA in Q4 nearly tripled to €20m, with the company citing strong sports margins and “significant growth” in iCasino.
Gaming Realms: In a pre-close trading update, the gaming content provider said FY23 revenue is expected to come in at ~£23m while adj. EBITDA will be “not less” than £10m. They represent 23% and 28% YoY rises respectively. During the year, the company’s product went live with a further 44 partners. BetMakers Technology: The Australian-based sports-betting and horseracing-betting backend supplier enjoyed a 40% boost to its share price after its FY24 Q2 earnings showed significantly reduced losses of A$1.2m ($782k) vs. A$9.1m in the prior year period. Revenue rose 10% YoY to A$25.1m. Analyst takesBaby it’s cold outside: The Wells Fargo team said, while temperatures may have plummeted in January, they are warming to the regional casino outlook as the comp picture eases. They also saw the potential of a Trump bump if he maintains his presidential poll lead into the spring and summer. He has a “large base in many regional markets,” Wells Fargo argued. +More startupsFundraisesALT Sports Data became the latest company to join the rush of announced fundraising deals in the first five weeks of the year, when it said late last week it had raised $2.5m in a seed round led by Eberg Capital and Relay Ventures.
Growth company newsNo-code automation platform provider Flows has signed up PressEnter as its latest client. Meanwhile, co-founder of KaFe Rocks Feda Mecan has joined the advisory board of Huddle. Startup focus – OddsJamWe’re jammin’: During the pandemic, childhood friends Alex Monahan and Ankit Goyal reconnected to co-found odds comparison and betting tools provider OddsJam. The business officially launched in April 2021, with the mission to bring the best data tools and educational content to sports bettors around the world. Funding backgrounder: OddsJam is bootstrapped and profitable, with a small team of advisors, including Benjie Cherniak, Justin Tupper and Noah Szubski. Put your shirt on it: “We believe there is a huge opportunity to educate people to not lose their shirts betting,” says Matt Restivo, who was recently promoted to CEO. “Some people in the industry think ‘line shopping’ is a thing – in the US, it really isn’t.”
Do you know who I am? There are currently 40m bettors in the US alone, but “if you were to walk into a sports bar with 100 sports fans today, 98 still haven’t heard of us,” Restivo says. “We are confident that with a strong focus on producing high-quality, educational, organic content that will change.” Cooking up a storm: OddsJam believes the combination of its content and “elite ability to create consumer products that users love will be a recipe for us to be the category-defining company in the next five years.”
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Kambi Group is the leading provider of premium sports betting technology and services, empowering operators with all the tools required to deliver world-class sports betting and entertainment experiences. The Group’s services not only include its award-winning turnkey sportsbook but also an increasingly open platform and a range of standalone sports betting services from frontend specialists Shape Games, esports data and odds provider Abios, and AI-powered trading division Tzeract. Together, we are limitless. For more info, go to www.kambi.com An +More Media publication. For sponsorship inquiries email scott@andmore.media. |
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