Super-affiliate group Better Collective said a record performance by the business during the second quarter helped drive year-on-year increases in revenue and net profit in the first half of its 2021 financial year.
Revenue for the six months to 30 June amounted to €78.8m (£67.3m/$92.6m), up 117.7% from €36.2m in the corresponding period last year.
The publishing business, comprising Better Collective’s online platforms and media partnerships where online traffic comes directly or through organic search results, was the main source of income for the group, with revenue up 47.6% to €49.9m.
The affiliate put this rise down to the impact of its acquisition of Action Network in May, the largest deal of its kind in the group’s history, as well as a number of major sports events that took place in the half such as the Uefa Euro 2020 national football team tournament.
However, the most significant growth came within Better Collective’s paid media segment – covering lead generation through paid media and social media advertising – where revenue rocketed 1,104.2% year-on-year to €28.9m.
Better Collective said growth in the segment was driven by its acquisition of pay-per-click specialist Atemi in October of last year.
In terms of its geographical performance, rest of world revenue more than doubled from €32.2m in the first half of 2020 to €66.1m this year, while US revenue also rocketed by 217.5% to €12.7m.
Turning to spending and costs before depreciation and amortisation hiked 153.8% year-on-year to €53.8m, with Better Collective putting this down to expenses related to acquisitions, which also included Swedish online sports betting media platform Rekatochklart.com in March.
However, such was the impact of revenue growth in the half that earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), excluding special items, increased by 65.0% to €25.9m.
Special items costs, mainly related to acquisition activities, amounted to €5.4m, while the group also noted €1.6m in financial costs, which left €14.9m in pre-tax profit, up 33.0% on last year.
Better Collective paid €4.9m in tax during the half, thus ending the period with a total net profit of €10.0m, 16.3% year-on-year.
Looking at the second quarter and revenue increased 161.4% to €40.0m – a new quarterly record for the business – with publishing revenue up 78.8% to €26.1m and paid media revenue rocketing 1,884.4% to €14.0m.
The group saw US revenue increase by 438.5% to €7.0m in the three months to 30 June, but its rest-of-world operations drew the most income, with revenue rising 138.1% to €33.1m for the quarter.
EBITDA excluding special items climbed 89.6% year-on-year to €12.7m, while after including €5.6m in special items costs and €1.1m in financial spend, profit before tax amounted to €4.0m, down 16.7% on last year.
After paying €2.3m in income tax during the quarter, Better Collective was left with €1.7m in net profit, a decrease of 56.4% from €3.9m in the same period in 2020.
“Q2 marks yet a record quarter in terms of revenue and new depositing customers delivered to our partners,” Better Collective’s co-founder and chief executive Jesper Søgaard said. “At the same time, we continue to record strong profitability and cash flows.
“The strong performance is especially driven by the US business, and by our media partnerships that saw breakthrough performance during Q2. The peak of the quarter was the closing of our largest acquisition to date, Action Network, which is a game changer and consolidates our leading sports betting media position in the US.
“For the remainder of 2021 we will continue pursuing our strategy to become the leading sports betting media group in the world. We have are well prepared for an exciting and profitable future for Better Collective, and I look forward to further knowledge sharing and joint effort with our new colleagues from Action Network.”
