Perform acquires Voetbalzone after strong organic growth
Revenues up by more than one third excluding newly acquired RunningBall and Mackolik businesses.
Sports data and live streaming provider Perform Group has seen its profit after tax treble year-on-year thanks to new acquisitions, the AIM-listed company has revealed in results for the year ended 31 December 2012.
Revenues were up 47% year-on-year to 151.6m, or 35% excluding RunningBall and Mackolik which were acquired last year, while Q4 revenues were up 13% compared to the corresponding period in 2011.
The company has also today announced the acquisition of the Netherlands’ number one independent sports site Voetbalzone for an initial consideration of 2m, with a further consideration of up to 10.5m to be paid contingent on the EBITDA of the Dutch business for the three financial years to December 2015.
The deal follows last year’s acquisition of German-facing Sportal.de, and joint-CEO Oliver Slipper said: “We have set out a growth strategy focused on augmenting Perform’s strong organic growth with selective acquisitions including ‘local champions’ and today’s announcement is an excellent example of us executing this strategy.”
Perform’s Watch&Bet streaming service, taken up by egaming operators including bet365 and Unibet, attracted five new licensees in 2012 and saw a 29% increase in events streamed to 14,729.
Of Perform’s seven new RunningBall customers post-acquisition, four already took on one of the company’s other services, and 14,500 events are already contracted or contracting for delivery in 2013 along with 10,000 for 2014.
Last year also saw the launch of Facebook and YouTube channels for the group’s Livesport.tv and Goal.com brands, while new versions of both brands are being rolled out across all platforms in the early part of 2013.
Slipper added: “We enter 2013 with increasing momentum driven by our operational performance and the structural drivers in our core growth sectors…Looking further ahead the Group is in a tremendous position to capitalise on the many exciting opportunities we see across all the markets it operates in.”
The company has also appointed former Vodafone European HR director Paul Chesworth as its chief people officer. Chesworth, who has also held senior HR roles with the likes of British Aerospace, will join Perform’s executive board.