Better Collective SVP of Esports on Futbin acquisition
Sharpr is a weekly newsletter covering the intersection of esports and betting
Hi everyone, Cody here.
I’ve made it back from a relaxing few days of vacation (and a terrible sunburn) just in time for some big breaking news from Better Collective, revealing its $113M acquisition of FIFA community platform Futbin. I managed to spend some time catching up with the company’s SVP of esports this week to discuss the deal a bit more and what its plans are, especially coming off its HLTV acquisition in February 2020.
So grab some sunscreen and let’s dive into this week’s action ☀️
In this week’s edition of Sharpr…
Better Collective acquires Futbin for $113M
Esports Integrity Commission to scale through partnerships, software
News, data, and headlines from across the gaming industry
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Better Collective acquires Futbin for $113M
Sports betting media company Better Collective has deepened its position in the esports and gaming space through the acquisition of FIFA community platform Futbin.
Better Collective will acquire Futbin and its related assets for $113M.
Better Collective will pay $75.6M in upfront cash and company shares, with $32.3M paid in performance-based incentives over a two-year period.
Futbin launched in 2014 as a platform for FIFA Ultimate Team, the popular game mode where users unlock players and build custom teams to compete against each other. The platform is said to have 50M monthly visitors on its website and 3M daily active users on its mobile app.
Futbin monetizes through ad sales and a subscription service offering an advertisement-free experience for users.
Better Collective believes the acquisition will bring revenue diversification from activities unrelated to sports betting through ad sales to retail and consumer brands.
The Danish sports betting conglomerate took its initial leap in esports in February of 2020 through the $37.5M acquisition of Counter-Strike news source HLTV. The investment was distinctly synergistic from the onset, and gave Better Collective a deeply valuable foothold in gaming with a community known for its rich betting culture. Beyond Counter-Strike’s popularity among esports bettors (it is the most wagered on title, according to PandaScore), HLTV had a strong, pre-existing advertising network with operators that the company could tap into.
While FIFA is one of the most popular game franchises in the world, the title doesn’t come close to the likes of Counter-Strike, League of Legends, or Dota 2 in betting volume. Better Collective’s Futbin acquisition isn’t meant to target esports bettors, though–it’s a media play to gain ground with gaming consumers and advertisers, Better Collective SVP of Esports Henrik Lykkesteen tells Sharpr.
Better Collective has trended “toward the media side of things” over the last few years, Lykkesteen says, adding that betting isn’t a core element of its strategy in esports, despite what could have been perceived given the company’s affiliate marketing background.
Unlike its HLTV deal where operators intersect with its asset, Futbin will be operated as a platform for advertisers outside the gambling space. Lykkesteen says the company has no plans of inserting betting content in Futbin near-term, but will instead focus its efforts on reaching a “critical mass” of esports consumers–and that includes more acquisitions.
“We believe that esports is the path we can take where we can both acquire and grow as a media company. I think a lot of these assets are below the radar for some of the bigger media houses–they’re not focusing on this segment.”
Sharpr Take: It’s interesting to see a company firmly defined by the sports betting industry invest such a lofty figure (three times the amount paid for HLTV) in a FIFA community platform. However, given the company’s renewed focus on esports media as opposed to wagering, the acquisition of Futbin seems to be a solid move from Better Collective.
Lykkesteen echoed the optimism of Futbin’s revenue potential, as called out in the company’s press release on the deal. With both Futbin and HLTV, he says Better Collective now reaches approximately 100M monthly users, with interest in expanding its presence in the sector through more acquisitions (he added Madden NFL seemed like a promising game title).
The esports and gaming consumer is a hot demographic for many industries, gambling included. Although as it stands, especially in developing regions like the US, the esports consumer appears to be more valuable than the market for esports wagering.
Esports Integrity Commission to scale through partnerships, software
This past weekend saw the Esports Integrity Commission host the 2022 ESIC Global Esports Summit at ExCeL London with top professionals from across the esports and gaming industry.
While onsite at the event, Esports News UK’s Dom Sacco gleaned key takeaways from ESIC’s presentation, and with it, some insight into the esports watchdog’s plans for this year and beyond.
The organization has grown over the last few years with the addition of new staff members, allowing it to continue providing its critical work of safeguarding integrity and fraud prosecution to the industry. In a presentation to attendees, ESIC Commissioner Ian Smith and ESIC Director of Global Strategy and Partnerships Stephen Hanna spoke about future developments of the organization. A slide from the presentation highlights several key near-term developments ESIC is undertaking in an effort to scale:
Establishing Memorandum of Understandings with game publishers to “harmonize sanctions across esports” (ESIC has an existing MOU with the Nevada Gaming Control Board).
Recognition in government jurisdictions and a “talent agent scheme” for cross-jurisdiction regulation of agents.
An online integrity tutorial for tournament administrators and other stakeholders.
“We are about to relaunch our online integrity tutorial, because at the moment all education is being done with admins, coaches and more on Zoom, which is fine, but we want to give better access to this to everybody,” Smith said.
“We’re looking at launching a specialized esports insurance product later this year covering travel and prize pool risks, and we’re moving our current independent disciplinary panel operation, which is internal to ESIC prosecutions, to an international esports tribunal model that will do that work as well as be accessible to external stakeholders, non-members and people from the industry.”
Smith admitted that he and the organization was “overwhelmed” due to a 270% uptick in suspicious bet alerts in 2020. Although Smith and Hanna said the company is working diligently to ensure ESIC can scale to meet the global need at hand for match protection with “internal and external capability.”
The pair says they are looking into software and resources to do the work more efficiently, adding that there are a number of unannounced partnerships that will give ESIC access to roughly 4,000 staff around the world.
🗞 In the news
Luckbox CEO Thomas Rosander says a single governing body involving game publishers would benefit the esports betting industry.
Rivalry has hired Britt Doll as its marketing director of Canada, two weeks after the operator launched in Ontario.
Esports odds feed provider Oddin.gg has partnered with sports betting technology company SB22.
Online esports competition and wagering platform HypeX.gg–a React Gaming (formerly Intema Solutions) brand– has rebranded to Compete.gg.
📈 By the numbers
Infinite Reality is set to acquire esports and entertainment company ReKTGlobal in a $470M all-stock deal.
New Jersey recorded $1.12B in March sports betting handle, clearing the $1B threshold for the sixth time in the last seven months.
Newzoo forecasts 64M people will participate in organized gaming competitions in 2022.