Gaming Innovation Group Inc

OSE:GIG

Earnings Call Analysis

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q3

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

Hi, and welcome to RedEye. Today, we are joined by Gaming Innovation Group, who will present their Q3 results, and we are going by Petter Nylander who will do the presentation; and also Jonas who will present the Media segment. We will also follow you through the Q&A. [Operator Instructions] Thank you very much. So please go ahead with the presentation.

[Petter Nylander, executive]

Thank you so much, Hjalmar, and good morning or good day, everyone, listening into this webinar. So to start with sort of a high-level summary where we think we are. So summarizing sort of our ambition is to really become one of the leaders in the iGame industry, and we think this is good building block in our ambition. And what we're trying to do from the Board perspective, together with the management and the excellent team we have at GiG. It's really to transform the business, both the platform and the media side of the business from a locally-focused champion in the Nordics to become a European regional champion, and now we're aiming to be global champions, both for the platform business and both for the media business.

And we think this report illustrates that we're delivering on that strategy. So also, what we've been sharing in previous reports, we're making good progress to split the companies in the coming year into 2 separate entities and some of the key milestones in this report has been addressed so such having new senior management for the platform and also to strengthen the media business with another acquisition we talk about it later. So the media business has delivered 12 successive quarters with record revenues. So we have a very strong team, very data-driven with very strong excellence in operational focus and delivery. So we're very happy, and we gave the mandate to the management to do another -- initiate another acquisition within this year.

So very happy to see that we can drive organic growth and also deliver on attractive M&A activities for the M&A business. So very happy to see we have a new CEO that you will see in the Q&A shortly who sort of -- is leading and also taking a lot of initiatives in the platform business to drive shareholder value going forward and prepare ourselves to be a stand-alone entity.

So we believe, as we are today, and we think that the Q3 illustrates that we -- both businesses are well positioned to drive shareholder value going forward in this, what we believe is an exciting global market going forward. So looking at the numbers, you can see the underlying developments in revenues.

You can see solid growth versus last year, 39%, also an EBITDA, a positive development with 61% year-on-year growth, and EBIT follows the same pattern. So overall, very happy to see the underlying drive and sort of transformation of the business combination, as you know, organic growth and also the latest acquisition we did earlier this year. So to zoom in and summarize, we delivered another successive all-time high revenue and EBITDA and the EBITDA margin increased to 43%, an all-time high for us and a strong progress towards our financial targets and goal of 50%.

GiG Media with another all-time high both in revenues and EBITDA, just showing the excellence of what management and the team is doing there. It's really nice to see. And our latest acquisition on Media side, AskGamblers, continued its positive momentum and revenues are up 45% from the run rate. For the first month, we took over to the run rate the last 90 days in Q3, 45% uplift, which is just a testament again to excellence by our management and team within Media.

Looking at the Platform and Sportsbook, we continued positive delivery with 5 new brands live during the third quarter. And as said, we have added strong experienced new management for Platform and Sportsbook, which is really key in our ambition to split the companies during next year.

We also, as you have seen some of you last night and this morning, we are now introducing and working on another media acquisition that Jonas, as our Managing Director and CEO for Media business, will talk about shortly.

So financial highlights then, all-time high revenues of EUR 31.8 million, an increase of almost 40% whereof 23% is organic. Reported EBITDA of EUR 23.8 million, up 177% from EUR 8.5 million in Q3 last year. And then excluding reversal earn-out adjusted EBITDA was EUR 13.6 million in Q3, that's up 61% year-on-year.

So that's a record revenue despite unfavorable sports results that you've seen from the industry, preferably at or in September, in particular. And we are trying to quantify that, the impact for us, it's about a little bit south of EUR 1 million hit in revenues in a normalized world. And we know that goes up and down. And normally, when the margins are lower, we have happy customers, and they tend to come back and spend it again. So we are not that concerned about those kind of fluctuations. It's normal in this industry.

Okay. With that, I would like to introduce my colleague, Jonas, who is going to present and walk you through the media business. Please go ahead, Jonas.

[Jonas Warrer, executive]

Hi, everyone. My name is Jonas. I have been leading the GiG Media unit since Q4 2019. As Peter mentioned, another record quarter for GiG Media, all-time high revenue, all-time high EBITDA. It is the 12th quarter in a row now with all-time high revenue. We grew our growing revenue 49% year-over-year, of which 23% is organic EBITDA, is up 53% year-over-year, ending at EUR 10.4 million. That gives us an EBITDA margin at 46%, which is basically the area around where we want it to be. And of course, it's a goal for us to try to message that number up and get it higher and higher over time. Publishing reached all-time high in revenues up 70% year-over-year. If we exclude the campus unit publishing or the old publishing business is up 20%.

And as you will see later in -- when we talk about player intake, the publishing unit, in general, is in very good shape. Paid revenues is up 9% year-over-year despite I would call it a weaker Q3 in terms of sports events and sports margins, especially at the end of September was a bit rough on sports margins. If we look at player generation, first time deposits ended at 114,000, a 32% increase year-over-year. Similar to previous quarters, we believe very much in the value of revenue share earnings, i.e. recurring revenue. And the bulk of the players similar to previous quarters, the public players we made are on a deal with a revenue share component, either a full revenue share or a hybrid deal.

As I said, we see very good underlying growth in the publishing business and in the FTD generation in publishing. If we include AskGamblers into publishing, FTD intake is up 150% year-over-year. And if we exclude AskGamblers, FTD in second publishing is up 98% year-over-year. If we look at the Paid department, as I said, Q3 was somewhat of a not that interesting sports quarter. So purposely here, we have a lowered player intake, simply to save marketing money that we can invest in subsequent quarters where there's better sports events or more sports events, and it's easier to generate players. If we look at revenue splits, again, similar to previous quarters, our revenue share earnings is in this quarter at 63%, up from 61%. And it hovers around that area, 63% to 65%.

As I said, we have it as an ambition, of course, to try to increase that as much as possible. I think we are -- we will probably try to aim for something around the 65% going forward. So I think this gives a healthy mix of revenue share earnings, listing fees and then occasionally CPAs to try to take unique opportunities in the market. Revenues from the Americas increased 33% year-over-year and now represents 18% of GiG Media revenues. Latin America remains a strong region of growth for us and will also do going forward. We still grow in our legacy markets. We started out in the Nordics. We still grow in the Nordics. We are still also growing in Europe. I think there's still a lot of potential for us in Europe to grow even further.

But of course, the relatively importance of, especially Nordics, and also, to some degree, Europe goes down as we grow in other regions. Gig Comply, our marketing compliance tool signed 1 new client in the quarter, and we signed 5 existing clients. Diversification, when talking about markets and where we are growing and where we're getting where we move from, just wanted to touch on this one. It's a key theme for us. We think that diversification is sort of -- is the key element to secure sustainable long-term growth in the business. Why? Simply because it reduces risk and it makes you less volatile to what is happening.

I think everybody that has worked in the industry for the time understands that this is a very fast-moving industry. During the quarter and not only during this quarter, but also during the many previous quarters, we have and we will continue to diversify the business. This means that more websites, more clients and more markets will drive revenue growth for us. And if you look at, for instance, the amount of customers we work with that generate quarterly revenue above EUR 10,000, just as a metric. You can see that in Q3 '22, we had 94 clients, and now we had 162 clients. The same with a number of websites. We have more local focused websites that drive revenue for us, and we grow revenue in more and more markets.

So diversification is happening, and it is a continued focus area for us going forward because this is what will generate the highest long-term growth for us. A bit on AskGamblers status, as Peter mentioned, AskGamblers is in excellent condition. The post-merger integration plan is on track and performing well. Very positive results after taking over operations. Monthly revenue and player intake, as Peter mentioned, if we look at Q3 average, is up 45% compared to February and EBITDA is up 65% compared to February.

The team in AskGamblers is doing excellent here and have been very easy to adopt into the organization. If we look a little bit ahead and for Q4 specifically, we are working very dedicated now to migrate askgamblers.com onto the GiG Media medial platform. And when that happens, we expect to see a further boost to numbers. Product quality will go up. It will probably be a much better start in terms of sale rankings going forward, easier to do locally said offers, all of the details that makes a good business. And this is something we hope to complete by year-end.

At the same time, also a very other interesting part for AskGamblers is that we are working on adding sports betting content to decide thereby boarding website audience and market presence. And I think when I think about it, I think if we add sports, we are sort of doubling the addressable market that AskGamblers have. So a very interesting one. When we have migrated over to the GiG Media platform, it will be relatively fast to add sports to the site.

Then of course, there's a big one also for this presentation. So last evening, we announced that we had signed an agreement to acquire KaFe Rocks. KaFe Rocks is a well-known [indiscernible] industry and very reputable. I would say it's one of the competitors that I personally have considered a very serious contender for sort of the leadership role in the industry. It has a global portfolio diversified across 15 markets or above 15 markets. And most notably featuring U.S. flagship brands, time2play.com, and uscasinos.com. Similar to what we do management in KaFe Rocks, I believe very much in the value of recurring revenue or revenue share earnings and KaFe Rocks have above 70% of recurring revenue share earnings.

And this is, of course, very positive for us when talking about the value of KaFe Rocks and the risk with acquiring KaFe Rocks, hence why I mentioned it. The strategic importance behind this acquisition, there's 3 key elements here: secure and maintain our pole position in the casino affiliation world, advanced our position and presence in the U.S. market, a very lucrative market. And then -- going back to the diversification. I talked about further diversification, more markets, more partners and more websites to drive revenue.

If we just spend a bit of time in the 2 first elements, poll position in casino valuation and increasing presence in U.S., I would say both these elements are very lucrative to us. And of course, when we saw this opportunity, it does a very interesting month to go after.

If we look at the acquisition price, it's a deal at EUR 37.5 million, EUR 15 million upfront, and then EUR 20 million over 24 months with sort of payment each 6 months. Then we have EUR 2.5 million in shares pending operational targets. To 2024, EV/EBITDA multiple at 3.6x. We anticipate revenue for KaFe Rocks at EUR 23 millions in 2024 and EBITDA at EUR 10.5 million. Similar to AskGamblers, we expect to see a revenue boost for the KaFe Rocks assets using GiG Media, Marketing, Media technology and, of course, also all of our data and our data technology.

So simply put, we expect there to be very high synergies when taking -- we're taking the KaFe Rocks business and applying all the technology we build up in GiG Media and all the processes. There is, of course, also quite solid cost synergies in merging the the businesses that will further maximize EBITDA growth. And we expect to close in December. And if anybody from the KaFe Rocks team is listening in on this presentation. I look very much forward to working with all of you and look forward to welcoming you to the company. Then I'll hand over.

[Petter Nylander, executive]

Thank you, Jonas. So we're going to cover now the platform and Sportsbook side of the GiG business and then a summary and then we're going to enter a Q&A together with Hjalmar. Okay. So as mentioned before, we are very proud and happy that we have been able to identify and attract some of the best names in the platform industry to join GiG. So that's a key milestone for the third quarter and also in preparation for this upcoming split. Richard Carter, who is the CEO, is also here today. You will see him shortly. He will introduce himself. He's now as of September, leading the business of the GiG Platform in Sportsbook.

Further, after Richard joined, he was also able to attract and bring aboard another strong name from the industry. A gentleman called Andrew, who comes from SBTech and DraftKings, similar background as Richard, who are now entering the hat and role as Chief Business Officer, given our ambition to grow the business and to sort of really take the opportunity now with so many markets opening up and reregulating for iGaming.

So both of these individuals have a strong experience, not only from SaaS, but also from iGaming, which with -- including relationships with attractive stakeholders for the Platform business. So Richard has already introduced a lot of new initiatives, which we believe is the foundation to secure profitable growth such as creating a Flatter, more efficient management structure. Stronger and clearer domain ownership to leverage and support future growth opportunities. So we already see very good initiatives and things are happening to build the foundation for the future value creation of the platform business.

Looking at the numbers then. So the revenues from Platform and Sportsbook was at EUR 9.3 million versus EUR 7.8 million last year, an increase of 20% organic. EBITDA, we had a EUR 3.2 million, that's 90% up versus last year and EBITDA increasing 35% -- the margin increased to 35% versus 22% last year. We think with good commercial development in the quarter with 2 new agreements secured and 5 new brands went live on the platform during the third quarterly, notably, we're very proud of our partnership with Betsson, and we went live with Betsson Serbia under the brand name [indiscernible] during the quarter.

Also something that we find interesting, of course, is regulation coming on a global level. What we noted for us, which we find attractive, given that we have a client in that geography is that New Zealand has a new government in the third quarter. And they have indicated and communicated that they intend to regulate iGaming in New Zealand in the years to come. Exactly, the time line we haven't seen, but we think that's a positive thing for the industry and hopefully also for GiG going forward.

So integration pipeline. We have a delivery pipeline with another 14 brands in integration pipeline as speaking to build future revenue and margin expansion. We are now looking at geographic diversification, covering a total of 38 markets, including the current pipeline. And more than 70% of the pipeline have both Sportsbook and Platform products, which we find very solid.

So overall, then you can see then on the pie chart here, the geographical sort of -- how we look and that's underlying the ambition that we have going from a Nordic player to pan-European player and hopefully a stronger global focus for the platform business. And as you know, this is an industry with quite long relationship, good partnerships. So it's all about securing happy clients, adding new clients and securing innovation and core innovation to make clients thrilled and excited to stay as a platform partner with GiG. So 82% of the operator revenue here is coming from locally regulated or soon to be regulated market, which we find very healthy for the platform business going forward.

So summarizing before we enter the Q&A on the right-hand side, we think we are really well positioned. We think the third quarter is a testament to the overall strategy ambition to become 1 of the world leaders in iGaming, both for the media side of things moving, as I said, from Nordic, pan-European global force, the same thing, same ambition for the platform business. And we think the third quarter illustrates that we are making good progress to that ambition.

So we delivered an all-time high revenue and EBITDA for the quarter. EBITDA margin of 43%, progressing towards a long-term financial target that we have communicated early of 50% plus, and the strategy of diverse geographical footprint supporting the growth across both media and platform business is sort of well on track. GiG Media initiated a second transformative acquisition in '23 on top of the good organic growth, which you find as a strong message in this report. And again, we reiterate that we anticipate full year revenue in between EUR 125 million and EUR 130 million going forward.

Thank you for listening in. And now we're going to have a Q&A session, and we'll also see on stage here, Mr. Richard Carter, our CEO for the Platform business. So Hjalmar, do you want to...

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

One of the big news today was supposed to be KaFe Rocks acquisition or late last night. So I'm going to start with a few questions that I think. Maybe if you can give us some information about the kind of historical performance of these assets over time and yes.

[Jonas Warrer, executive]

Yes. I think, as I said, KaFe Rocks is known in the industry as a very solid competitor. I think the company had some plans in the past that didn't materialize. And then there was a good opportunity for both them and for KaFe Rocks to sort of make this deal happen.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

And -- I mean you're looking to realize some synergy shares, it sounds. Are there any similarities to the AskGamblers acquisition with these assets? Or is it different kind of synergies you're looking for?

[Jonas Warrer, executive]

No, I think very much the same synergies. I think with the technology setup we have now and with this -- the way we use and work with data, it's sort of the same set of where we can go in and imply both the assets we have and also the process that we have and then improve the KaFe Rocks business, hopefully, by quite a lot. If we -- in, let's say, in 6 to 8 months, can stand here and say that we have grown revenue with 50% from where to go. I would be very happy, of course, similar to AskGamblers.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

Sounds promising. And you gave us some information that this will improve your footprint in U.S., and you mentioned 2 assets that the KaFe Rocks have there. Could you give us some sense on the, I don't know, revenue or traffic that is from U.S. of the total revenue from KaFe Rocks, so.

[Jonas Warrer, executive]

I can say that the KaFe Rocks have invested quite a lot in -- especially the time2play asset, and it's an asset that's doing really good and with good momentum in the U.S. It's -- I think it's an asset they have worked on for quite a few years with good investment. So very happy that to -- also meet the team there. I hope also there will be good synergies with our U.S. assets there. So we increased sort of the pool of knowledge we have about the U.S. market.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

Right. All right. And in terms of other reasons like technology or more migrating KaFe Rocks to your technology stack or can you get something from them as well that sense?

[Jonas Warrer, executive]

I still have to get into the full details there. But I would say our IT team will probably be very busy in the next half year or a year to migrate all the sites to the Media platform that we have built, and we believe very much in given the history we have seen over the last 3 to 4 years.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

And you also gave us a number of recurring revenue, revenue share mix was around 70%. Is that kind of a historical trend for them? Or is it growing or trending up or down?

[Jonas Warrer, executive]

I think similar to GiG Media Management and KaFe Rocks have much believed in the value of revenue share earnings. So I think -- I guess that would be the answer to it.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

And then moving on to -- or moving back to GiG Media as it is now. I think 1 thing that was interesting in Q3, you continue to have a very strong development in the FTDs number which now is more maybe driven by publishing than paid, partly because you had the FIFA World Cup last year, of course. But would you say there's anything, any particular asset or any particular market that is driving this good FTD growth?

[Jonas Warrer, executive]

No, and that's actually very nice. It's growth across the business, across the different units, a very strong organization behind me. All the different teams are doing amazing. So very nice to see again. It's also diversification that we don't have any sort of singular drivers. And I think also here now, we see the value of being a multichannel affiliate. Now publishing is growing a lot, while Paid is maybe not growing that much, and it will probably maybe also change going forward. So as long as we are multichannel, many markets, many partners, many websites. This we can see that we keep growing.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

Right. Okay. You keep saying diversification, but I'm still going to ask a strong growth in Europe. I mean, it's a market for you typically see soft growth, I guess, but you have been able to have good growth historically as well, but it sounds like the European growth was even stronger than normally this quarter. Was that correct? Or is it business as usual?

[Jonas Warrer, executive]

No, that's correct. No, actually, I would say in Europe, we still have so much growth potential. There's many markets in Europe where we are still -- where I consider GiG Medial relatively small. So in terms of market size, it's probably only, I would say, Nordics, where we are very big. But if we look outside Nordics, we have so much growth potential still in -- even only in Europe in LatAm in North America. Then we have the emerging markets maybe in Africa, and in Asia. So there's a big potential out there that we haven't tapped into yet.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

And it's interesting to see your charter with your number of customers that have a run rate of about 10,000. Is that kind of per brand or per operator or a.. And if you -- I mean, you gave us some sense that you're aiming to diversify even more. Where are you in this process? I mean, are you halfway? Or how much more do you want to go there, let's say...

[Jonas Warrer, executive]

That's probably another limit to how many big partners you can have. I would maybe like to see some of the mid-tier partners grow even further in size. And of course, it's also some of the big partners we work with and have worked with for over 10 years. We do it because they're doing an amazing job. So it's -- but maybe grow some of the mid-tier partners and then have a new layer of, if we call it outside Tier 1, 2, 3 partners coming in that we can see also will be there in the future. There's new markets coming up in new regions. There will probably be new partners there that we still haven't met and have worked with.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

And you mentioned that AskGamblers is looking to add sports betting on their content, so to say. And you see that as a big potential could -- I mean double the reach of the same, maybe. But I mean, how quick will that work? And are you sure that casino audience will opt for sports betting? Or are you looking for a new audience that will go to the site?

[Jonas Warrer, executive]

I think a lot of sports players also have a preference for casino, maybe not that much the other way around. But I think one thing that we will have fun AskGamblers that will be very strong in the market is, of course, we will also offer our customer service complaints feature within sports betting. So this is where we sort of mediate between the operators and the players if there's any disputes about activities bets being placed , money being deposited, not withdrawn. We go in then mediate and we will, of course, also offer that feature for sports betting, where I think there is quite an untapped market there.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

Interesting. And looking at next year, you gave us a guidance for the Media segment, partly driven by the acquisition. But in terms of growth trends per market, I mean, you have highlighted LatAm as a growth market. And of course, there's lots of happening there. But the growth mix next year, is it U.S. maybe that is going to be a more growth driver? Or is it the classic growth all over for next year?

[Jonas Warrer, executive]

Yes. I would actually say, hopefully, if we grow in North America, LatAm, Europe, and we still grow a little bit in Nordics. Then maybe we have a little bit extra coming in from Africa and Asia, something like that, yes.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

And maybe a questions for both of you here in terms of future M&A potential. I mean you did AskGamblers last year and now KaFe Rocks. How is the consolidation potential in the media market looking now? Is it fewer assets out there? Or is there still the potential to do things in the future?

[Petter Nylander, executive]

Do you want to comment on that, Jonas?

[Jonas Warrer, executive]

Yes. I would say there's a lot of assets out there. It seems like the industry has really accelerated lately in terms of people wanting to do transactions. So there's still a lot of potential out there. And I think this is more -- from our end, it's more about doing it in a pace where we keep being good at what we do. And the assets we are on board, we give them an immediate boost. So there's probably sort of a timing issue here, how many assets can you take over in a shorter amount of time. I'm very comfortable with the AskGamblers acquisition and what we have done now with the KaFe Works acquisition. Going forward, we have our eyes on, of course.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

Yes. Okay. Sounds promising. And maybe moving over to the platform little a bit and welcoming Richard Carter as well. I think I'm going to start asking you mean -- you've been in this business a very long time, as Petter among others. Maybe can you give a short introduction yourself and then maybe what you see if you compare GiG to some of the other businesses you've seen historically?

[Richard Carter, executive]

Yes, sure. So my name is Richard Carter. I used to be the CEO of SBTech, knows that business as DraftKings and then subsequently became Chairman and CEO of Bragg. And then recently got to know GiG, and during that process, got very excited about the building blocks they have in place. So it's quite an easy decision. I think if you look at Gig Platform Sportsbook today, they've got exceptionally strong product verticals in sports, casino, platform, managed services, and that's all independent by data. Also, we've got a very strong market presence in regulated markets. I think we're certified in 32 markets today. We've got 6 in the pipeline. And that underpins a very strong market, addressable market for us, which is probably over about EUR 35 billion. And we've got a very talented workforce. So in a nutshell, we've obviously got a very strong product offering, which I believe that we can take this business to the next level.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

Sounds good. And I mean, since you've been in the industry for a long time and look at the different market developments, what markets are you mostly excited about looking over the next 5 years, I guess, both geographically and and I mean Sportsbook versus the Platform product?

[Richard Carter, executive]

Well, there's a lot of interesting markets, as Petter touched on, obviously, New Zealand is about to regulate. We've got a very exciting client there. So that will be a very big opportunity for us. There's a lot of interesting developments going on LatAm. Peru is going to regulate next year, Brazil and there'll be many more to follow. So I think for us, it's going to be a focus just of doubling down on our core markets in Europe, looking to LatAm. And then there's going to be some ad-hoc opportunities I think in North America and, in particular, also Canada.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

Good. And looking at the pipeline, I mean, you keep having a good lineup of clients in the pipeline. Would you say that the ones that are in there now are similar to the mix that you have or anyone that have more revenue upside potential than the average, I'd say?

[Richard Carter, executive]

Well, I think we've got a solid pipeline. I think it could be a lot better and it's going to be a lot better, and that's 1 of the reasons for hiring Andrew Cochrane. And already, we're starting to see some strong traction. I think in terms of the pipeline today, I think, yes, in terms of the clients that we're looking at is there's certainly going to be higher revenue-generating clients. And in terms of the future, we'd expect to obviously increase the average revenue per client.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

And I mean, you mentioned that 70% of the pipeline has a Sportsbook, but only 34% of the existing clients. Is that part of that trying to upsell...

[Richard Carter, executive]

Yes, there's a huge opportunity in sports. Our new sports and [indiscernible] I actually looked to acquire it a couple of years ago, so I know it very well. We've already made some quite significant improvements in the product there. We've got a very strong road map. So 1 of the big opportunities and 1 of the things Andrew Cochrane is going to be tasked with is trying to improve the upsell and cross-sell of our sports into existing clients. And then going forward, obviously obviously, there'll be a greater focus. So I'd expect that 70% number to increase.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

Interesting. And I mean, I guess you have some background from the U.S. market from SBTech and DraftKings there. How do you see that market has evolved? I mean, competitive fears back, I guess a lot of things happened. But the potential for outsourced Sportsbook have increased? Or what are the trends over there?

[Richard Carter, executive]

I think if you look at the market today and you look at the sort of top 3 operators, it's significantly concentrated. So in a lot of the states, you've got over 90% of sports going through 3 operators. So I think if we went back to sort of before the market regulated, there was a big opportunity, which we all thought and lots of these smaller players will come into the market, but what's transpired is that the bigger just got bigger. So I think actually, the opportunity is going to be very ad-hoc. I do think there's going to be a big opportunity with the tribes over the next few years. So it would be just on an ad-hoc basis, trying to get -- or trying to do -- build relationships with local players that have significant market reach. But I think in terms of, as you're seeing, we have a lot of the smaller players, it's a very difficult market.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

And also regarding M&A, I mean, you did a Sport & Co. Do you think there's -- I mean, the consolidation potential in the Sportsbook or Platform market, are there like small tech opportunities you can add on to your business there? Or there similar places like yourself that you can do M&A there? Or was the M&A for the platform segment?

[Petter Nylander, executive]

Do you want to comment on that.

[Richard Carter, executive]

Well, there's obviously, the theme going through the industry is obviously consolidation. I don't think we would be looking at consolidating in the sportsbook. We've got a very strong sportsbook. So it's going to be just a process of upgrading it, adding better product. Then, in terms of other verticals, I think there's going to be opportunities, I think, for our business to look at the casino verticals. And then as you say, there's probably going to be some opportunities for bolt-ons as well.

[Petter Nylander, executive]

But also adding to that, so that's really 1 of the key rationale behind splitting the 2 companies, so the standalone can make decisions to 2 separate boards about how to drive shareholder value, but in a combination of organic growth and potential acquisitions. So that will be helpful there in that perspective.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

Right. And mentioning the split up, I mean, you mentioned that you are -- looks set to do this in the first half of 2024. I mean are there any obstacles remaining? Or is it mainly market conditions or...

[Petter Nylander, executive]

So internally, we are holding the time line. And one of the key sort of, of course, milestones that we talked about earlier was to find a strong management who can drive this and a separate sort of environment, and that's a big tick in the box and sort of looking maybe to strengthen it even further. But so internal time line, we're on track. And then yes, of course, it's subject to macroeconomics and so on. But otherwise, internally, we have in good pace and on track to do it next year.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

All right. I'll move back to the Platform, one more question there on -- I mean you did mention the sports margin win was a little bit lower than the normal. Was this a larger swing than you typically see in the business? Or yes, if you can elaborate on that.

[Petter Nylander, executive]

Yes. I don't know if Rich, you want to cover it for the September one.

[Richard Carter, executive]

If you look at all of the major operators in the industry, they all reported a very weak margin. Unfortunately, all the papers were during that month. So it was quite an unusual swing in terms of just the proportion statistically favorites winning. So that's all it was. And obviously, these things tend to reverse over time. So I don't think it's anything structural.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

Yes. Yes. Got it. And moving to your guidance here for 2023. I mean you keep your guidance for the year. It looks like you're looking for a strong year-end there. Can you give us any more flavor on this? I mean, the October run rate, maybe do you see more potential Media versus Platform? Or how should we view the last quarter?

[Petter Nylander, executive]

No. So we're reiterating the guidance for the full year and Q4 is normally a strong quarter. So that's why we say, we're not giving any more details on that. So we're on track to hit the guidance.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

Okay. Okay. I got to see if there an additional question coming here on the web, not any additional yet. I'll see if I had some more here, we're still here. Yes. I guess on moving back to KaFe Rocks may be, you mentioned 2 assets there, but what's the diversification in KaFe Rocks and in general? Are these 2 assets a large part of the revenue or a lot of smaller assets as well.

[Jonas Warrer, executive]

It's more diverse than if we look at AskGamblers acquisition, where you predominantly have AskGamblers and KaFe Rocks. You have many more websites that drives revenue. It makes it a little bit more complex in terms of migrating sites and improving everything, but it also makes it more diverse with a lower risk, of course. So yes.

[Hjalmar Ahlberg, analyst]

All right. All right. Great. I think we have gone through all the questions from me and then from [indiscernible] as well. So thank you very much for joining here today.

[Petter Nylander, executive]

Thank you for having us, and thank you, everyone, for listening.