Better Collective seals Atemi Group acquisition in £40m cash and shares deal

Better Collective has agreed a deal to acquire global igaming affiliate Atemi Group in a €44m (£40m) cash and shares deal. Under the terms of the deal, Better Collective will pay £32.5m upfront via a combination of £27.8m in cash and £4.7m in shares in the Stockholm-listed business. The remaining £7.5m will be paid in equal quarterly deferred payments until the end of 2021. “The acquisition of Atemi Group provides Better Collective with additional channels of traffic sourcing high intent customers at a large scale,” Better Collective said. Better Collective said the acquisition would provide the opportunity of “scaling PPC activities into additional attractive markets” as well as providing the groundwork for further investment in sports betting. Atemi, formerly known as Rise Project, is a UK-centric and casino-focused PPC affiliate specialist. The deal grants the company access to key traffic acquisition channels as well as social media marketing platforms as an approved advertiser on sites including Facebook and Instagram. In addition, Better Collective said the purchase of Atemi would significantly uplift NDC volume. “This acquisition is a very important step for us to reach our strategic target of becoming the leading sports betting aggregator in the world,” Better Collective CEO Jesper Søgaard said. “We see many opportunities for expansion into new markets and for harvesting synergistic effects between our assets and competences. “The acquisition will immediately bring Better Collective in the absolute leading position when in comes to customer acquisition for online operators, with an estimated annual NDC level of more than 600,000. “From a financial perspective, Better Collective will take a leap of having proforma annual revenue of estimated more than €120m with high operational earnings and cashflow,” Søgaard added. In 2019, Atemi generated revenue of €33m and is on course to provide more than 180,000 NDCs to its operator partners in 2020. EGR understands that Atemi Group founder Richard Skelhorn is likely to remain involved with the business as a strategic consultant to Better Collective. “We built a very successful gaming affiliate business over the past five years at Atemi,” Skelhorn explained. “All credit goes to the amazing team and now we are thrilled to be joining Better Collective. Atemi and Better Collective are both market leaders in their respective areas and the combination of the two companies creates a very strong force in gaming affiliation. “I am certain this will take us to the next level,” Skelhorn concluded. Better Collective, which was rumoured to have bid for rival affiliate firm Catena Media over the summer, saw its shares increase by 2% in early trading.