The digital media company PERFORM has just announced the acquisition of Voetbalzone, the number one independent sports site in the Netherlands, at a time that they have also announced that everything is looking ship shape in the financial department, with 47% revenue growth and 103% adjusted EBITDA growth.
I have my violin out as I hark back to the days of the blackened out bookmakers on every high street of the U.K. If your old man couldn’t be bothered to walk down the street he had to rely on good old-fashioned Teletext for his sporting results. The finger feverishly fingered the remote control like a spotty teenager playing Track & Field on his ZX Spectrum. Back then it was the only method of finding out of you were a winner or a loser. It was the entertainment in gambling.
But these days’ things have progressed quite nicely. Teletext has been replaced by actual video footage of the event running in real time, in part due to companies like PERFORM. For the vast majority of gamblers it is all about entertainment. Not knowing if your bet is going to win or lose is like eating a lollypop that contains just the stick.
So the punter wants to know what’s going on and this is where PERFORM and its subsidiary Watch&Bet enter the party. They possess agreements with 200 rights holders and stream close to 12,000 fully-produced live events every year including football, tennis and basketball. Online bookmakers that are already in partnership with PERFORM include BET365, bwin, Danske Spil, PMU, Tab Sport, Unibet and William Hill.
In a full run down of their 2012 financial reports, PERFORM released the news that its fiscal 2012 profit attributable to equity holders of the parent had increase to £12.84 million from £3.13 million the previous year. Statutory earnings per share increased to 5.4p from 1.4p the prior year. Adjusted profit after tax, excluding exceptional items, share based payments, accretion of deferred consideration relating to acquisitions and acquisition related amortization and service charges increased to 26.9 million pounds in 2012 from 14.7 million pounds in 2011. Adjusted earnings per share grew by 76% to 11.1 pence from 6.3 pence in the prior year. PERFORM’s annual revenue rose to £151.61 million from £103.19 million last year.
Oliver Slipper, joint Chief Executive Officer of Perform Group stated: “We enter 2013 with increasing momentum driven by our operational performance and the structural drivers in our core growth sectors. We have significant visibility over full year revenues, with in excess of £130 million already contracted, and remain confident that we will deliver full year revenue and EBITDA in line with the Board’s expectations. Looking further ahead the Group is in a tremendous position to capitalize on the many exciting opportunities we see across all the markets it operates in.”
The Voetbalzone acquisition will cost PERFORM €2 million, with an additional contingent consideration of up to €10.5 million payable based on the EBITDA of Voetbalzone for the years to 31 December 2013, 2014 & 2015.
This acquisition comes hot on the heels of PERFORM’s other dealings involving Runningball and Mackolik.
